Wayve Appoints Elisa de Martel as Chief Financial Officer to Accelerate AV2.0 Commercialization

We’re excited to welcome Elisa de Martel to Wayve as Chief Financial Officer! 

With over two decades of financial leadership experience in the technology and automotive sectors, including autonomous driving, Elisa will oversee Wayve’s global finance organization as we enter the next phase of growth across our automotive and robotaxi businesses. She will be based in Sunnyvale. 

Prior to Wayve, Elisa served as CFO at Waymo, where she led the company’s financial strategy and capital planning as well as operational facilities, indirect procurement, and systems and helped the autonomous driving company grow from pre-revenue to hundreds of thousands of weekly trips across five US cities, leading its $5.6B Series C financing along the way. Previously, as CFO of Carbon, an industrial-grade 3D printing company, she led a $260M Series D raise and helped grow revenue past $100M while improving gross margin by over 60%. Earlier in her career, Elisa spent over a decade in senior finance roles at Apple, including manufacturing finance and  held roles at Citroen UK and PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

“I’ve spent my career at companies building transformative technology, and I am thrilled by the opportunity in front of Wayve right now,” said Elisa de Martel, incoming Chief Financial Officer of Wayve. “AV2.0 is an innovative, capital-efficient approach to autonomy, and I’m looking forward to scaling the AI Driver globally with our team and partners. As a road cyclist myself, safer roads matter to me personally, and I can’t wait to help create a safer and more enjoyable future for all. ”

This appointment comes as Wayve accelerates commercialization of the Wayve AI Driver, a single, end-to-end AI system designed to scale across vehicles, geographies, and products without reliance on HD maps, hand-coded rules, or custom hardware. 

Max Warburton, who has served as Chief Financial Officer for Wayve since 2024, will move into a strategic advisory role supporting the company’s leadership team. Under Max’s leadership, Wayve has experienced rapid momentum. In just the past year, we’ve raised $1.2 billion, forged strategic partnerships with the world’s leading automakers and technology companies, including Uber, Nissan, Stellantis, and Qualcomm, and launched public rides in London, with Tokyo to follow soon. 

“I couldn’t be more excited about the experience and passion Elisa brings in autonomy and deep tech,  and I look forward to partnering with her to scale the company as we launch the Wayve AI Driver in millions of vehicles across the automotive and mobility industry,” said Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve.  “I also want to thank Max, who has truly been instrumental in building Wayve’s financial foundation to help us reach this pivotal moment. We’re grateful for his continued partnership as a strategic advisor as we enter our next chapter.”