Cruise

Cruise was an autonomous vehicle developer founded in San Francisco in 2013 by Kyle Vogt, who had earlier co-founded Socialcam, and Dan Kan. Its first product, the RP-1, was a $10,000 retrofit kit that let 2012 and later Audi A4 and S4 cars steer themselves on highways. The company went through Y Combinator and in 2015 shifted to software for fully driverless vehicles in city traffic. California granted it a test permit in June 2015.

In September 2015 Cruise announced a $12.5 million Series A led by Spark Capital and Y Combinator's Sam Altman, bringing total funding to $16.8 million. Six months later, on March 11, 2016, General Motors announced it would acquire the company. The price was not disclosed. Reports ranged from more than $500 million to over $1 billion, and The Verge later described it as $1 billion. Cruise then raised outside capital as a GM subsidiary. SoftBank's Vision Fund committed $2.25 billion in May 2018, with GM adding $1.1 billion. Honda took a $750 million equity stake that October as part of a $2 billion, 12-year commitment. A $1.15 billion round in May 2019 from investors including funds advised by T. Rowe Price, alongside GM, SoftBank and Honda, set a $19 billion post-money valuation. Microsoft, Honda and institutional investors added $2 billion in January 2021 at a $30 billion valuation.

In March 2022 GM bought SoftBank Vision Fund 1's stake for $2.1 billion and invested a further $1.35 billion. Cruise launched paid driverless rides in San Francisco and expanded to Phoenix and Austin. After an October 2023 pedestrian crash, California suspended its permits, the company paused operations nationwide, and Vogt resigned in November 2023. On December 10, 2024, GM said it owned about 90% of Cruise, would stop funding robotaxi development and would combine Cruise's team with its own to work on driver assistance and personal autonomous vehicles. The merger into GM was completed in February 2025.

Cruise shows the outcome for seed and Series A backers who sell early to a strategic buyer. Spark Capital, Y Combinator and the angels exited roughly three years after founding, through a sale to GM for a reported sum many times the $16.8 million raised. Later investors such as SoftBank, Honda, T. Rowe Price and Microsoft bought in at valuations of $19 billion to $30 billion. GM's buyout of SoftBank and its repurchase of minority stakes ended the plan for an independent robotaxi company.