Waymo, Google’s former self-driving project that is now a business unit under Alphabet, said Wednesday it raised $2.5 billion in its second outside funding round. The company said in a blog post it will use the funds to continue growing Waymo Driver, its autonomous driving platform, and growing its team.

The round saw participation from existing investors Alphabet, Andreessen Horowitz, AutoNation, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Magna International, Mubadala Investment Company, Perry Creek Capital, Silver Lake, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Temasek and additional investor Tiger Global.

The news comes only a few months after former CEO John Krafcik announced in April that he was stepping down from leading the company after five years in the position. The CEO position is now being held jointly by Tekedra Mawakana, former COO, and Dmitri Dolgov, who joined the original self-driving project at Google and was CTO.

Krafcik led the company through its first external $2.25 billion investment round in March 2020. That round was later expanded by $700 million a few months later. But Krafcik could be a polarizing figure in the company.

“Experience has taught us so much, and we agree with those experts who say there’s no greater challenge in artificial intelligence than building and deploying fully autonomous technology at scale,” Dolgov and Mawakana said in a statement. “But we love a challenge and – thanks to the unmatched talent of our team – the Waymo Driver is already serving thousands of Waymo One riders as they get to work, shop for groceries, bring their kids to school, or just experience the joy of a ride with no human behind the wheel.”

In addition to its Waymo One commercial ride-hailing service, which operates in the Metro Phoenix, Arizona area, the company has continued to build out its Waymo Via trucking and cargo transportation service. Earlier this month Waymo announced it was entering a “test run” with J.B. Hunt for transportation services between Houston and Fort Worth.

Waymo started in 2009, and has since grown beyond expectation as a fully autonomous vehicle company, operating public ride-hailing service mainly in San Francisco. Now the company wishes to expand to other cities through partnership with firms and organizations.

“Through our delivery business unit, Waymo Via, we’re working with freight partners, including J.B. Hunt, to efficiently move freight cross-country with our growing fleet of Class 8 trucks,” the company said in a statement.

For kids, the best game in the world right now is Khan Academy. We play it at home. Points accumulated from “playing” Khan Academy qualify to visit Dave & Buster’s, a video arcade. Dave & Buster’s is my preference because it offers immersion on 3D, VR, AR and emerging technology. Largely, it is a video game of practical science where you can spend mere $10 to experience some of the things not available in the iPhone!

You can decide to exchange the Khan Academy points for Disney if you prefer that.

I have modeled the exchange thus – 500 points earned on Khan Academy qualify for $10 redeemable at Dave & Buster’s. Khan Academy has levels which as you “play” you rack up points. More so, they have a well designed programing course.

Try it on your child, you will be surprised that solving mathematics or learning sciences becomes like gaming. How do I battle to reach level 12? The battle here is mastering algebra or understanding photosynthesis, and because they have used the same motivation typical in video games, the child will not even know he or she is learning addition and multiplication.

“In this program, if you make the stars fall, you get $20 for Dave & Buster’s”. Inspire them. Motivate them. And make science, technology and mathematics a way of life.

In this piece, I explain how the makers of Indomie noodles used the same strategy Dangote Group had deployed across industrial sectors to defeat Dangote Noodles. The  accumulation of capability which Dangote Group uses to crush competitors did not work because Dufil Prima Foods (makers of Indomie) did the same thing from electricity generation to production, for its noodles business. With their vertically integrated business, there was no left inefficiency which Dangote could exploit to improve quality and reduce price.

In the end, an established brand won and Dangote Noodles could not dislodge them. Dangote Group later sold its noodle business to Dufil Prima Foods. There is a big lesson here: if you build a strong moat, you can protect your castle. Indomie noodles built a moat and was able to defend itself from Dangote Noodles.

As you utilize, combine and recombine factors of production to create products and services to fix market frictions, you must acquire, develop and deploy upstream capabilities, to remain  competitive in markets. Those capabilities must compound over time and must cushion strategic positioning.

How are you defending your business castle? Are you vulnerable to new entrants? What is your playbook? Are the capabilities compounding?

The Accumulation of Capability Construct – How Business Empires Are Built (Video)

Tekedia Capital is on the path to bring Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria in $millions this year. In short, the best export Nigeria has is the Diasporas and it is time we put efforts to harness their capabilities and resources. I am truly honoured that we began this mission, to connect the Diasporas to fund the NEXT Nigeria and Africa. Yes, your $change can help build communities and your nation in Africa.

People, Nigeria needs to communicate a higher purpose and connect its citizens, home soil and in diaspora, towards building a nation. Yes, it is easier to mobilize people to go to the moon than to dig a ground. From our data, I now believe that any governor or federal government that develops and executes a great diaspora playbook will outperform.

Abundance is with the Diasporas Nigeria; Nigeria needs to build bridges to get them connected to building the nation. Tekedia Capital is a fintech company and our focus is on investment syndication.  Learn more here.

What just happened here? “Cristiano Ronaldo’s removal of Coca Cola bottles at a Euro 2020 press conference on Monday was followed by $4 billion being knocked off the company’s market value. Ronaldo was speaking at a press conference ahead of Portugal’s game against Hungary on Monday when the soft drinks were placed in front of his seat. The 36-year-old removed them from view and said that people should ‘drink water’ instead. The gesture coincided with a significant impact on Coca Cola’s market value,” notes the theathletic.

Coca Cola is one of the world’s leading advertisers but here it used its money to pay for an own goal (as in football). Yes, when a football god scored against you, in the minds of a generation, you could be imperiled.

Coke is not a bad product. People need to consume EVERY legal product moderately and in order. Yet, Coca Cola needs to understand that with virality in this age, change will not come from politicians and governments, but through conscious efforts by companies to do the right things.

So when a brand is worried that its money could be used to destroy its value, you will see CHANGE. Coke has served the world but it is evident that it is losing the next generation; it should worry about that.