Ocado to invest £10 million in driverless vehicle start-up Oxbotica

Ocado announced in a stock market statement that it will look at the use of Oxbotica’s autonomous vehicle software for operations at its warehouse as well as “last-mile deliveries and kerb-to-kitchen robots”.

The cash injection comes as part of a £34 million Series B funding round, led by BP Ventures, in the Oxford-based firm.

Alex Harvey, chief of advanced technology at Ocado, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to work with Oxbotica to develop a wide range of autonomous solutions that truly have the potential to transform both our and our partners’ CFC (customer fulfilment centres) and service delivery operations, while also giving all end customers the widest range of options and flexibility.”

Paul Newman, co-founder and chief technology officer of Oxbotica, said: “This is an excellent opportunity for Oxbotica and Ocado to strengthen our partnership, sharing our vision for the future of autonomy.

“By combining both companies’ cutting-edge knowledge and resources, we hope to bring our Universal Autonomy vision to life and continue to solve some of the world’s most complex autonomy challenges.”