Nishimura & Asahi and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati have advised on a USD300 million seed financing round in Walden Robotics co-led by Toyota Motor Corporation and Deviation Capital.
Walden Robotics said other backers included Nvidia, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Prologis Ventures and CoreWeave Ventures. The financing round valued the company at USD1.1 billion.
Nishimura & Asahi represented Toyota, with the team comprising partners Atsushi Mizushima and Yotaro Takayama, as well as law professional corporation partner Satoshi Niki.
“We advised Toyota on the overall transaction, including the investment structure, key investment terms, drafting and negotiation of the transaction documents, and collaboration arrangements relating to Toyota’s North American manufacturing operations,” Takayama told Asia Business Law Journal.
Takayama said one of the key highlights was that the valuation at which the financing round was completed elevated Walden Robotics to unicorn status.
“Another notable feature of the transaction was that Walden is a startup spun out of the Toyota Research Institute, Toyota Motor Corporation’s US-based research and development organisation, and continues to maintain a strategic collaborative relationship with Toyota,” he said.
“We therefore sought to provide advice that appropriately reflected both Toyota’s role as a lead investor, and its ongoing commercial and strategic relationship with the company.”
Wilson Sonsini represented Toyota alongside Nishimura & Asahi, with the team led by partners Yoichiro Taku, co-leader of the firm’s emerging companies practice, and Joshua Gruenspecht.
Walden Robotics is a full-stack physical AI company that builds and deploys general-purpose robots for industrial manufacturing and logistics.
