Raquel Urtasun
Founder and CEO of Waabi and professor at the University of Toronto
A University of Toronto professor, co-founder of the Vector Institute and founder and CEO of the autonomous driving company Waabi.
Biography
Raquel Urtasun is a Spanish-Canadian computer scientist, entrepreneur and professor at the University of Toronto. Born in Pamplona, Spain, she earned a telecommunications engineering degree in 2000 and a PhD in computer science from EPFL in Switzerland in 2006, then held postdoctoral posts with Trevor Darrell at MIT and UC Berkeley and was an assistant professor at TTI Chicago from 2009 to 2014.
She moved to Canada in 2014 and, with Geoffrey Hinton, is a founder of the Vector Institute in Toronto, established in 2017. In 2017 Uber hired her as chief scientist and head of R&D of its Advanced Technologies Group in Toronto. In 2021 she left to launch Waabi, a company developing autonomous driving technology that uses generative AI to build simulation software for testing, where she is CEO. Waabi raised $83.5 million in seed funding, one of the largest first rounds for a Canadian startup, and a further $200 million in 2024. Her research applies AI to physical systems.
Notable contributions
Co-founded the Vector Institute
With Geoffrey Hinton, founded the Vector Institute, a Toronto-based AI research institute established in 2017.
Founded Waabi
Launched Waabi in 2021, an autonomous driving company that uses generative AI to create simulation software for testing self-driving technology.
Led Uber's self-driving research in Toronto
Was hired by Uber in 2017 as chief scientist and head of R&D of its Advanced Technologies Group in Toronto.