Autonomous automobile know-how startup Motional has secured a bridge mortgage that gives a short lived monetary reprieve as the corporate searches for a longer-term supply of funding, TechCrunch has discovered.
Motional CEO Karl Iagnemma advised employees in a companywide e-mail seen by TechCrunch that the corporate’s board of administrators authorized the bridge financing.
“As I’ve beforehand talked about, Motional’s shareholders have been in negotiations to finalize our subsequent spherical of funding. As a part of these negotiations, our shareholders thought of numerous quick term-funding options, together with a bridge financing, if discussions have been to increase longer than anticipated,” Iagnemma wrote within the e-mail. He later added that the bridge financing “will enable our shareholders extra time to debate long run funding choices and solidify alignment on Motional’s strategic path.”
The e-mail didn’t define the phrases or the quantity of the bridge mortgage or how a lot capital runway it’d present. The corporate didn’t reply to an e-mail in search of remark. TechCrunch will replace the article if the corporate feedback.
Automotive provider Aptiv — the opposite half of the $4 billion three way partnership with Hyundai that created Motional — mentioned in January that it might now not allocate capital towards the endeavor. That left Motional, which plans to launch a business robotaxi service in 2024, with sufficient capital runway to final via the tip of Q1 2024, in keeping with sources conversant in inside conferences on the time.
After a wave of consolidation and shutdowns within the nascent autonomous automobile business, Motional is without doubt one of the few corporations left that’s nonetheless pursuing a business robotaxi service. The corporate operates an autonomous automobile taxi service in Las Vegas (nonetheless with human security operators behind the wheel) on Uber, Lyft and By way of platforms. It additionally has an autonomous supply pilot with Uber Eats in Santa Monica, California.
With Aptiv pulling out of future funding, Hyundai is left as the only backer. Motional must both discover exterior traders, with Hyundai’s blessing, or get the automaker to totally fund the hassle.
Motional has taken measures to cut back prices because it seeks extra funding. Final month, the corporate minimize about 5% of its workforce, or fewer than 70 individuals. The layoffs largely affected administrative roles and a few workers working in Boston, one in every of a number of cities the place it assessments autonomous autos. The autonomous automobile firm final had layoffs in December 2022, when it minimize about 10% of its workforce. That earlier layoff largely affected the corporate’s operations in Pittsburgh, the place it assessments AVs.
