Self-driving vehicle start-up Aurora to go public in $11-bn Spac merger

Driverless technology startup Aurora Innovation Inc. has agreed to go public via a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners Y, a blank-check firm led by executives including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga Inc. founder Mark Pincus.

The deal represents an equity value of $11 billion for Aurora, and the combined company will be valued at $13 billion, according to a statement Thursday. The company is expected to have about $2.5 billion of cash at closing.

The transaction includes a $1 billion private investment in public equity from investors including Baillie Gifford and T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., as well as strategic investments from Uber Technologies Inc., Paccar Inc. and Volvo Group.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Aurora and Reinvent had reached a deal.

Aurora is led by Chief Executive Officer Chris Urmson, and Hoffman is a board member. Starting with the trucking market, Aurora expects to launch its first autonomous product in late 2023.

In March, the Silicon Valley-based startup, added Volvo Group to its list of partners to develop self-driving trucks. Paccar joined with Aurora in January for a similar development deal. Aurora has said its other investors include Amazon.com, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.

Laser Technology

Aurora’s technology relies on innovations in lidar, which uses lasers to build a three-dimensional image of the surrounding landscape and help plot routes around obstacles in the road. It uses a technology that is designed to allow vehicles to “see” farther and faster and is critical at highway speeds.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2021, after which the combined company will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “AUR.”

Reinvent Technology Partners Y raised $978 million in a March initial public offering. Earlier Reinvent SPACs have separately agreed to merge with flying taxi startup Joby Aviation and insurance technology platform Hippo.