Amazon has agreed to buy a self-driving California based start-up named Zoox Inc. In a deal reported the deal is worth more than $1 billion dollars which gives it the option to use autonomous technology in either ride-hailing or its delivery network.
The world’s largest online retailer has stepped up its investment in the automobile sector, participating in self-driving car startup Aurora Innovation Inc’s $530 million funding round early last year.
While Amazon and Zoox didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal, the Information said on Thursday, citing sources, that Amazon had agreed to pay over $1 billion to buy Zoox. The report did not mention the exact purchase price.
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Zoox Chief Executive Officer Aicha Evans and its co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Jesse Levinson, will continue to lead the company as a standalone business, the companies said.
A majority of Zoox investors are getting their money back, according to the Information.
Lux Capital, DFJ, and Atlassian co-founder Michael Cannon-Brooks are some of the investors in the Zoox which is around a six-year-old startup.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the companies were in advanced talks and the deal could value Zoox at less than the $3.2 billion it achieved in a funding round in 2018.
