Driverless car start-up Wayve gets Richard Branson's backing as it targets US rivals

A Cambridge driverless car start-up that has emerged as one of Britain's brightest prospects in the cutting edge sector has secured backing from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group as it seeks to accelerate its plans. Wayve Technologies, founded by 28-year-old Alex Kendall with Amar Shah, is building artificial intelligence technology that uses machine learning techniques pioneered by DeepMind to improve self-driving cars. Its latest funding has seen it secure a further $20m (£15m) from current and new investors. According to Mr Kendall, its chief executive, Wayve's technology could leapfrog US giants such as Google's Waymo and Uber. Mr Kendall said: "The incumbents started off the back of DARPA [the US defence agency] challenges in the mid 2000s. I think those challenges set the industry back about 10 years."