General Motors revs up UK ‘connected car’ start-up wejo

General Motors is taking a 35% stake in wejo, a British-based ‘connected car’ start-up, Sky News can reveal.

The American automotive icon General Motors (GM) is investing millions of pounds in a British technology start-up that is targeting a leading role in the impending revolution in driverless vehicles.

Sky News has learnt that Chester-based wejo has struck a landmark deal that includes a $25m (£19.4m) cash injection from GM alongside a long-term data-sharing agreement between the two companies.

Sources said the alliance was signed several weeks ago, but has yet to be disclosed by either side.

GM’s investment includes an ‘in-kind’ consideration worth more than $70m to supply data from millions of the car-maker’s vehicles for wejo to manage for seven years, according to insiders.

In total, the deal values wejo at $275m (£213m), with GM taking a 35% stake in the British company.

Wejo was founded by Richard Barlow, an entrepreneur who foresaw the value of data from ‘connected cars’ to insurers, local authorities and breakdown recovery services.

To date, the start-up has processed data from 78 billion miles of car journeys.