The robot car company Aurora is the first promising developer of future technology to go public. So far from, among others Amazon supported company takes – like many start-ups currently – an abbreviation via the merger with an already listed company shell, a so-called Spac (“Special Purpose Acquisition Company”). Aurora is valued at around eleven billion dollars in the deal and aims to raise around two billion dollars (1.7 billion euros) in fresh money.
At the same time, the key figures and forecasts published on Thursday by Aurora give a picture of how high the development costs for self-driving cars are – and how much patience you need.
The company does not expect the first proceeds from the use of its robotic car technology until 2023 – and estimates a meager two million dollars. But then rapid growth is to follow: 123 million dollars in sales in 2025 and a good two billion dollars two years later. But the costs are already high: Aurora expects a cash outflow of more than $ 550 million for this year alone. Another 3.7 billion dollars should be added by the end of 2026.
Aurora was founded in 2016 by a kind of dream team in the industry: Chris Urmson was chief developer at Google’s robotic car project, Sterling Anderson was responsible for the autopilot driver assistance system Tesla. Part of their concept is to get by with fewer test vehicles than rivals such as Google’s sister company Waymo or General Motors subsidiary Cruise. These competitors also raised billions for development. In recent funding rounds, they were valued at around $ 30 billion each.
One of the cooperation partners of Aurora is among others Toyota. End of last year Aurora took over Uber’s robotic cart program, after the driving service broker went on austerity course in the corona pandemic.
So-called Spacs are financial vehicles in which well-known investors collect money through an IPO in order to later take over a company. The companies do not have a specific goal in mind at the time, but only lure with the promise to find a good one. So Spac investors issue a kind of blank check to the management of the vehicle.