Baillie Gifford

Stord raises $250M at $3B valuation

E‑commerce logistics company Stord raised $250 million at a $3 billion valuation, TechCrunch reported on May 26, 2026. The round was led by Strike Capital with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Franklin Templeton, Baillie Gifford, G Squared and Bond. Founded in 2015 by Sean Henry (CEO) and Jacob Boudreau (CTO), Atlanta‑based Stord provides a network of physical warehouses plus inventory management software and has recently added an AI interface to its platform. The raise doubles its valuation from a 2025 mega round and brings its total funding to about $775 million to date. Stord positions itself as an alternative to Amazon’s fulfillment services and was recently showcased at Google Cloud Next.

Why value is shifting to private markets

Watch investment manager Robert Natzler give his perspective on why value creation is shifting towards growth-stage private companies, and his selective approach to AI investing, on BNN Bloomberg’s ‘The Close’.

Nuro Launches Autonomous Vehicle Testing in Tokyo Streets

Nuro has begun testing its autonomous driving software on public roads in Tokyo using Toyota Prius vehicles with human safety operators on board, marking the startup’s first overseas deployment. The company, which opened Tokyo offices in August, says Japan’s left‑side driving, dense traffic, and different road signs create unique challenges. Nuro describes its autonomy stack as an end‑to‑end AI foundation model enabling “zero‑shot autonomous driving,” claiming the software operated in Tokyo without prior training on Japanese driving data; it currently runs in shadow mode with manual oversight. Founded in 2016, Nuro shifted in 2024 from low‑speed delivery bots to licensing its software to automakers and mobility providers. The company has significant investor backing (including a $940M SoftBank investment in 2019 and $203M raised in 2025) and signaled plans for further international expansion.