NuTonomy Seeks Additional Funding

NuTonomy Inc. has launched a new round of funding to help meet its goal of launching self-driving-taxi service in Singapore by 2018.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company aims to attract several times the $16 million it raised in May, nuTonomy founder and CEO Karl Iagnemma tells Bloomberg News. He says the company is in talks with several potential investors with the goal of securing the new funds by mid-2017.

One of the companies nuTonomy has talked to in the past is Singapore’s state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte, Iagnema says. Temasek also has backed dwelling-sharing service Airbnb and China ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.

NuTonomy, which in 2013 was spun off from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology partnership with Singapore, has raised about $20 million to date. Its backers include Fontinalis Partners, a Detroit-based venture capital firm co-founded by Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr.

NuTonomy began public test rides of autonomous taxis in Singapore this summer. The company, which has a development partnership with Jaguar Land Rover Ltd., also is in talks with several other cities—including London and Dubai—about new pilot programs.