Mystery self-drive startup aims at giants

A ‘nobody’ mystery startup called Zoox is chasing a bumper round of funding that, if successful, would value it over a billion dollars.

The firm is said to be developing technology similar to Alphabet Inc.’s Google car project.

According to media reports, Zoox was founded in 2014 by Australian designer Tim Kentley-Klay and engineer Jesse Levinson.

The pair reportedly worked at Stanford University with Sebastian Thrun, the first director of Google’s self-driving car programme who left to concentrate on his education startup Udacity.

Zoox’ profile has increased drastically amid heightened interest in autonomous cars and the potential for using them as self-driving taxis.

While automotive giants like GM have been working on self-driving cars for years, companies like Zoox could play an important role in refining the technology.

Zoox is one of 13 companies that have received licenses from California to test autonomous vehicles on public roads.

The list includes Google , Ford, Tesla, Nissan, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.

According to Bloomberg: “Zoox ticks all the boxes for a disruptive newcomer. It has a short, catchy name, a grand but vague vision, board members sourced from firms like Oracle and Apple and if funding goes as expected they will have deep pockets to make it all happen.”

Hong Kong-based AID Partners Capital Holdings this week disclosed a USD$20 million investment for a Zoox stake that implies a $1 billion-plus valuation for the startup.

AID chairman and chief investment officer Kelvin Wu believes Zoox can deploy a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles by 2020 for ride-sharing services like those Uber offers.