Oxbotica, a UK-based developer of autonomous vehicle software, has raised USD 13.8 million (GBP 10 million) from Ocado, an online grocery retailer. The investment was made as an extension to its Series B funding round that now stands at USD 60.8 million led by BP Ventures in January this year. This brings the company’s total fundraising to USD 90.2 million.

The new capital, coming in as a strategic investment, will be utilized to further develop and integrate Oxbotica’s self-driving systems to serve areas within the online grocer segment, including packing warehouses and last-mile delivery.

The company first partnered with Ocado in 2017 to test “CargoPod,” its autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV), for last-mile grocery delivery in Greenwich, London over a period of two weeks. The CargoPod is able to carry a payload of 282 lb. and cover approximately 18 miles on a single charge at a maximum speed of 25 mph (restricted to 5 mph for the trial).

Oxbotica develops its autonomous vehicle software using computer vision and machine learning technologies. Its system has been used in multiple trials involving autonomous passenger cars and cargo deliveries in the UK.