Wayve appoints Max Warburton, former Advisor to the Management Board and Head of Special Projects at Mercedes-Benz, as CFO to drive the company’s next phase of global growth

Press Release – November 12, 2024 – LONDON – Wayve, a pioneer in Embodied AI for automotive, is pleased to announce the appointment of Max Warburton as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). With over 25 years of expertise in investment banking, equity research, and corporate strategy at both the OEM and supplier level, Max will work closely with Wayve’s executive team to accelerate growth and expand the company’s global footprint.

“Max is a powerhouse in the auto industry and we’re thrilled to welcome him as CFO. His insights have already been instrumental in establishing our go-to-market strategy, and I look forward to partnering with him to supercharge our commercial growth and scale the business globally.”

Max brings an extensive understanding of the automotive industry, honed through a distinguished career as a sell-side financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Bernstein, covering the auto industry across Europe, the US, and Asia. During this time, he was consistently ranked as the leading auto industry analyst globally, winning the Institutional Investor No.1 award for 14 separate years and being inducted into the Institutional Investor “Hall of Fame.” He held senior roles as Managing Director at both UBS and Bernstein and was made a Managing Partner at Alliance Bernstein in 2014.

From 2020-2023, Max served as Advisor to the Board and Head of Special Projects at Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, overseeing corporate strategy and reporting directly to the CEO. He has also been a member of the Board of YASA Motors, an innovative start-up developing axial flux electric motors, has acted as Advisor to the Board at Rimac Group, an automotive and energy storage specialist, and acts as a Senior Adviser to Kimmeridge Energy, a US private equity firm.

Having advised Wayve on its automotive strategy over the past year, Max now joins the company as CFO, where he will help drive the next stages of growth, structure relationships with OEMs and other partners, develop financial controlling and reporting, and oversee investor relations.

Alex Kendall, Co-Founder and CEO, Wayve says:
“Max is a powerhouse in the auto industry and we’re thrilled to welcome him as CFO. His insights have already been instrumental in establishing our go-to-market strategy, and I look forward to partnering with him to supercharge our commercial growth and scale the business globally.”

Max Warburton, CFO of Wayve, says:
“I have got to know Wayve in an advisory capacity over the last 12 months and have become increasingly convinced that its end-to-end approach to ADAS and Automated Driving will succeed technically and commercially. I am delighted to join Wayve as CFO and to support the next stages of the company’s development and value creation.”

About Wayve
Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology for automated driving. Their advanced AI software and foundation models for autonomy enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any environment, enhancing the usability and safety of autonomous driving systems. Wayve is developing mapless and hardware-agnostic Embodied AI products for automakers and fleet owners, accelerating the path from assisted to automated driving. Backed by top investors like SoftBank Group, NVIDIA, Uber, and Eclipse Ventures, Wayve’s mission is to reimagine mobility with embodied intelligence. To learn more, please visit www.wayve.ai.

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Source : Businesswire