Self-driving Car Startup Wayve is Crowned Winner of PITCH at Web Summit 2018

Congratulations are in order for UK startup Wayve, as they have  been named the winner of the PITCH Competition at Web Summit 2018, now taking place in Portugal. 

This year’s PITCH competition saw more than 1,000 entries from across the world. Wayve was one of the top 168 startups from 40 countries that were chosen to pitch in front of investors, media and a live audience during the three-day conference

Wayve is an AI company, based in Cambridge, UK. They are committed to building a full data-driven driving software stack, which enables a car to drive itself using only the understanding of what it can see. The Cambridge based startup is aiming to be the first self-driving car company to deploy in 100 cities globally.

Alex Kendall, co-founder of Wayve said “Today's approaches to autonomy will not scale to society's demands in the next decade. When you're developing technology that is so far against the status quo of the world today, it is very easy to be dismissed by group thinkers.

We strive to let our technical results speak loudly in an industry of hype. Winning PITCH at Web Summit sends a strong signal to the market as we enter into our next fundraising round and validates that others are as excited as we are about this opportunity.”

PITCH judges Bedy Yang, managing partner at 500 startups, Tom Stafford, managing partner at DST, and Holly Liu, Visiting Partner, Y Combinator said that Wayve stood out as the clear winner this year because of three really important factors; the strength of their team, their market size, and their early evidence of traction.

“For us the judges Wayve had all three. Wayve are doing what all their competitors should be doing. If they can continue to do, what they are aiming to do, they will be huge.” Tom Stafford, managing partner at DST added.

Paddy Cosgrave, CEO & co-founder of Web Summit said: “Choosing an overall winner of PITCH is never easy and this year it was so close but Wayve are deserved winners.

Autonomous vehicles are the future of transport. Solutions like Wayve are essential to the the success of the industry and I’m sure they will go on to do great things in this space.”

PITCH brings together the world’s leading early-stage startups for a live on-stage battle.