Vay closed a $60 million strategic investment from Grab Holdings in November 2025, with the potential for an additional $350 million in earn-out payments tied to consumer revenue growth milestones. This brings Vay's total lifetime funding to approximately $192 million.

The company previously raised a $95 million Series B in December 2021 led by Atomico, with participation from Kinnevik, Coatue Management, General Catalyst, Creandum, and Eurazeo. Earlier rounds included seed funding from European venture capital firms.

In October 2024, Vay secured a €34 million venture loan from the European Investment Bank for European expansion. The EIB funding is earmarked for Vay's rollout with European car-share operators and municipal fleet partnerships.

Vay combines traditional car rental with on-demand delivery. Users open the Vay mobile app, drop a pin at their location, and within minutes an electric Kia e-Niro arrives with no one inside.

A remote driver, called a Teledriver, controls the vehicle from a simulator-style cockpit in a control center using 4G/5G connectivity. The remote driving station features an automotive-grade steering wheel, pedals, and six HD screens that recreate a 360-degree view of the vehicle's surroundings plus audio feedback.

When the car arrives, the Teledriver disconnects and the customer unlocks the vehicle through the app to drive normally. At the end of the rental, customers can either park anywhere within the geofenced service area or hand control back to a remote driver while still in traffic, who then repositions the car for the next customer or takes it to charging stations.

Each vehicle is retrofitted with forward, side, and rear cameras, microphones, radar, ultrasound sensors, GPS, dual-modem connectivity, and a proprietary safety controller that can execute an emergency stop within milliseconds if the connection drops. The system maintains sub-100 millisecond video round-trip latency in urban areas through multiple cellular networks and proprietary compression technology.

Vay operates a B2C teledriving service combined with a B2B technology licensing model. The consumer business follows a usage-based pricing structure where customers pay per minute of driving time, similar to car-sharing services but with remote delivery and retrieval.

The company's cost structure includes vehicle acquisition and retrofitting, remote driving station infrastructure, cellular connectivity costs, and human teledriver wages. Unlike fully autonomous vehicle companies, Vay maintains ongoing labor costs but avoids the massive R&D expenses associated with developing Level 4 autonomous driving systems.

Vay's B2B teledriving-as-a-service platform allows other companies to integrate remote driving capabilities into their own fleets. This creates a software licensing revenue stream with higher margins than the asset-heavy consumer business.

The model positions Vay as a bridge between current ride-sharing and future autonomous transport. Remote drivers can handle complex urban scenarios that challenge autonomous systems while operating multiple vehicles sequentially, improving labor efficiency compared to traditional one-driver-per-vehicle models.

Fleet utilization is optimized through proprietary software that matches remote drivers to vehicles, manages charging schedules, and repositions cars to flatten demand peaks across the service area.

Halo operates a similar teledriving car-share service in Las Vegas with a fleet of under 50 electric vehicles. The company was the first in the US to receive approval for driverless vehicle delivery and positions itself on cost advantages through T-Mobile 5G connectivity and technology optimized for suburban environments.

Imperium Drive runs a four-vehicle pilot in Milton Keynes, UK, covering a four-mile radius with emphasis on low-cost suburban coverage and airport use cases. The company still uses safety drivers for outbound trips but employs remote retrieval, with plans for national expansion as UK regulations mature.

Sway Mobility operates a one-car public pilot in Detroit funded by the Michigan Future Mobility Office. Their technology focuses on multi-carrier bonding to mitigate urban latency issues, demonstrating public sector interest but at minimal scale.

Faction partners with Arcimoto to develop driverless three-wheelers for last-mile delivery, combining remote teleassist with Level 4 autonomous systems. They target sub-$2 per mile logistics costs, potentially threatening Vay's unit economics for parcel delivery applications while licensing chassis technology to other operators.

Traditional logistics companies are exploring teledriving for depot operations and edge cases where full autonomy struggles. This creates both partnership opportunities and competitive threats as established players develop internal capabilities.

Uber and Lyft are investing in autonomous and electric fleets to reduce driver costs, representing long-term competitive pressure. However, their focus on fully autonomous solutions creates near-term opportunities for hybrid human-remote models.

Grab's strategic investment in Vay signals how established ride-hailing companies view teledriving as complementary technology rather than direct competition, potentially providing distribution channels across Southeast Asian markets.

Vay launched teledriving-as-a-service in September 2024, selling its technology stack to OEMs, trucking companies, delivery operators, and car-share firms. This B2B platform allows partners to embed Vay's remote driving stations and software into their own fleets, creating software revenue beyond Vay's owned vehicle operations.

The company is expanding into remote trucking operations, hiring teledriver operators for Class-8 trucks in Las Vegas and partnering with Kodiak Robotics. Human remote drivers handle depot maneuvering and edge cases that challenge autonomous trucking systems.

Vay is developing remote valet and parking APIs for consumer vehicles, piloting with the Peugeot E-3008 to offer remote delivery and parking as factory options. This enables SaaS-like licensing opportunities with automotive OEMs for millions of new vehicles annually.

The Las Vegas service has attracted both tourists and price-sensitive local commuters, with over 17,000 completed trips. The service area covers 45 square miles including the Las Vegas Strip, a high-tourist-traffic corridor.

Grab's $60 million strategic investment provides access to tens of millions of ride-hailing users across Southeast Asia once regulatory approvals are secured. This partnership could expand Vay's addressable customer base beyond individual city launches.

The European Investment Bank's €34 million loan explicitly supports partnerships with car-share operators like Poppy and municipal fleet contracts, targeting institutional customer segments beyond individual consumers.

Vay is building an 8,500 square foot production facility in Las Vegas to scale the fleet to 100 vehicles in 2025, intended as a template for additional US city launches. The facility will standardize vehicle retrofitting and remote driving station deployment across locations.

Germany's new remote driving regulation effective December 2025 creates the first standardized approval framework for commercial teledriving in Europe. This enables entry into dense cities like Berlin and Hamburg where parking scarcity increases demand for delivered mobility services.

The Grab partnership targets Southeast Asian markets where ride-hailing adoption is high but autonomous vehicle deployment faces infrastructure and regulatory challenges. Remote driving offers an alternative path to driverless services in these markets.

Regulatory uncertainty: Remote driving operates in a regulatory gray area across most jurisdictions, with approval processes varying widely by city and country. Changes in safety requirements, insurance frameworks, or connectivity standards could require technology modifications or restrict service areas, which would limit deployment and increase compliance costs.

Connectivity dependence: The business model relies on maintaining sub-100 millisecond latency over cellular networks, making Vay vulnerable to network congestion, coverage gaps, or infrastructure failures. Any degradation in connectivity quality could trigger safety systems that stop vehicles, causing service interruptions and potential liability issues.

Autonomous displacement: As Level 4 autonomous driving technology improves and costs decline, the need for human remote drivers could diminish. Companies like Waymo and Cruise are already operating driverless services in select cities, which could undercut Vay's human-in-the-loop model before it achieves scale and market penetration.