A Bay Area startup that's developing autonomous shuttles, and won a tentative stamp of approval from San Jose officials earlier this year, has raised tens of millions in new funding.
Glydways raised close to $47 million in a new round that opened earlier this month, according to a filing.
The South San Francisco-based company confirmed the amount and said the Series B round was still open but declined to disclose its valuation or the investors that participated. The filing shows that Glydways is targeting closer to $57 million.
As things stand, the Series B round brings Glydways' total funding to $94 million, according to PitchBook. Its previous investors include Khosla Ventures, New Science Ventures, True Equity, Empty Set Group and Nimble Ventures.
In April, the San Jose City Council chose Glydways as one of the city's partners for a proposed transportation project that would shuttle passengers between San Jose Mineta International Airport and Diridon Station.
Glydways was one of five firms that are working together under the name San Jose Connection Partners, which the city council selected for the project. They beat nearly two dozen other proposals, including one from Elon Musk's tunnel company, Boring Co., Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.
If their design is ultimately approved, the project could be worth $500 million and launch by 2028.
Each of Glydways' shuttles would carry up to four passengers and travel the 3.5 miles between Mineta's Terminal B and Diridon Station at no more than 31 miles per hour. The shuttles would operate on a dedicated path and be able to move more than 2,000 passengers an hour, the city said in a statement in April.
The seven-year-old company was founded by Mark Seeger, along with early hires Zach Zeliff and Eric Monsef. Seeger transitioned from the CEO role to chief strategy officer in January, according to his LinkedIn. The company's president and chief financial officer Gokul Hemmady took over as interim CEO.
"Based on all the discussions we’ve had with the mayor here, along with his team, there’s a lot of innovative thinking," Hemmady told the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2021. "So we are very optimistic about how fast they will move to get something like this done."
