Autonomous delivery company Nuro raised $600 million in its latest funding round, bringing its valuation to $8.6 billion.

Details:

The latest fundraising round is led by new investor Tiger Global Management, with participation from existing investors, including Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, China-based venture firm Gaorong Capital, grocery retailer Kroger, SoftBank Vision Fund 1. Google also joined the round.

“With the boost of this new funding, we’re turning our focus to commercializing and scaling the production of our third-generation vehicle at our new facility in Southern Nevada,” Dave Ferguson, co-founder and the president of the company, said.

Nuro was founded by Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, both of whom had worked on Google's self-driving car project.

Context:

Alongside Google’s spinoff Waymo, Nuro has emerged as one of the leading players in the commercial driverless car space. 

Last year, Nuro became the first such company to receive a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that enabled it to charge money for its driverless delivery service.