Sydney based Blackbird Ventures, and giant Melbourne superannuation fund Hostplus are also investors. But shortly after the most recent funding round closed, Australian co-founder Tim Kentley-Klay was abruptly removed from the chief executive position. The ousting surprised just about anyone who has tracked Zoox' progress, and sent a shockwave through Australia's close-knit start-up community. Mike Cannon-Brookes has invested $100 million in Zoox. Credit:Shaughn and John The circumstances surrounding Kentley-Klay’s departure have been murky at best. One month later, they are finally starting to become clearer. The same week Zoox took the wraps off the ‘VH4’ in San Francisco, board member Laurie Yoler was in Sydney to present at a conference for entrepreneurs hosted by Blackbird – one of the company's earliest investors.

Yoler also met with some of Zoox’s other Australian backers, and some prospective new investors from these shores. At the event, and in those meetings, she shed a little bit more light on the situation. Zoox, has already raised a staggering amount of money for a company with no commercial product: $US800 million. But it will need a lot more to fulfil its aims. Building a fleet of robot taxis that endlessly roam the streets doesn’t come cheap. Based on current cash burn rates – and Zoox' ambitions – the company may look to raise another $US1 billion next year. And the board came to the conclusion, fairly or not, that Kentley-Klay could affect its ability to do so. Building a fleet of robot taxis that endlessly roam the streets doesn’t come cheap. The company’s last financing round – worth $US500 million – was actually smaller than it could have been. Yoler indicated that a handful of big investors were close to participating in the round, but ultimately turned it down. Whether this included a strategic investor – a tech firm or a traditional carmaker – remains a topic of much conjecture.

Yoler also noted that while Kentley-Klay was a great CEO for the first phase of Zoox’s growth, he was less suited to running a company with 600 employees. His perfectionist approach had started to create bottlenecks in the company’s decision making. And the board had grown increasingly nervous about his insistence that Zoox remain fully independent. This could turn away some investors – and make it difficult for the company to strike any form of alliance with a traditional automaker. Loading The board decided to move and make the difficult decision to replace Kentley-Klay at a time of strength, its coffers recently filled, rather than weakness. Plenty of companies know how to build cars. But only one or two know how to build software enabling them to drive themselves. Zoox is among them, and that's where the perceived value in the company rests.

Zoox's board believes its technology is ahead of Waymo, the Google unit widely considered by the outside world to be the leader in the race to develop self-driving cars. For his part, Kentley-Klay remains bitter about the ousting from Zoox, according to people familiar with his thinking. And justifiably so, since it is all based on his vision. He remains the company’s largest shareholder, and still has a seat on the board. Elon Musk. Credit:Bloomberg How that plays out remains to be seen, but a comeback in some capacity cannot be ruled out.