Wayve offers employees $85 million tender at $8.5 billion valuation

Wayve gave employees a rare chance to cash out before an IPO, opening an $85 million secondary tender that lets staff sell part of their vested equity at an $8.5 billion valuation. The move puts the London-based autonomous driving and embodied-AI company inside a growing playbook for AI startups competing for scarce technical talent.

The buyback is being led by Wayve’s existing and new investors, a structure that gives workers liquidity without pushing the company into the public market. In a sector where senior engineers and researchers can command premium offers, these tender sales have become a retention tool as much as a financing feature, helping startups reward early employees while keeping cap tables stable.

Wayve’s latest cash-out comes just months after its February 25 Series D, when the company raised $1.2 billion at an $8.6 billion post-money valuation. Wayve said the round was meant to accelerate the scaled commercial deployment of its end-to-end AI autonomy platform. Eclipse, Balderton and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the financing, with participation from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Baillie Gifford, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Uber.

The company has been using that capital to broaden its commercial reach. On June 17, Wayve said Stellantis, Wayve and Uber had formed a partnership to explore global deployment of Level 4 robotaxis, adding another high-profile industrial and ride-hailing partner to its autonomy push.

The near-match between Wayve’s Series D valuation and the new tender price suggests investors have kept their confidence intact even as the company gives employees an exit path. For workers holding vested shares, the transaction turns paper wealth into cash before any listing, underscoring how much competition for AI talent now shapes the way private companies raise money, hire, and keep people in place.