Wayve Hires Former Waymo CFO for Finance and Commercial Deals

Wayve has put a former Waymo finance chief in charge of the financial planning and commercial deals behind its autonomous-driving business. Elisa de Martel is joining as chief financial officer, replacing Max Warburton, who is moving into a strategic advisory role for the leadership team.

De Martel was Waymo’s CFO from 2022 through January 2026. TechCrunch says that period included Waymo’s start of commercial operations in several cities and a $5.6 billion Series C. Before Waymo, she was CFO of industrial 3D-printing company Carbon and spent 11 years as Apple’s manufacturing finance director.

One role, from planning to partnerships

• Financial strategy, planning and capital allocation.
• Reporting, governance, treasury and tax.
• Support for commercial, investor and strategic-partnership deals with Wayve’s executive team.

A business with two deployment routes

The appointment arrives while Wayve is pursuing both robotaxi and passenger-vehicle applications. It has partnerships with Nissan and Stellantis, and has launched public passenger rides in London with a human safety operator onboard. TechCrunch reports that Tokyo is expected to follow, though no timing was specified.

Those London trips are a public service, but not a fully driverless one: the safety operator remains aboard. Wayve’s software uses an end-to-end neural network, meaning it learns driving behavior from data rather than relying on high-definition maps, custom hardware or hand-coded rules, according to TechCrunch. The company describes that software as a basis for both assisted-driving and fully automated-driving systems.

Financial oversight at a heavily backed startup

Wayve has raised $3.2 billion to date and is valued at about $8.5 billion, according to TechCrunch. De Martel’s remit now covers how that capital is allocated, how the company reports and governs its finances, and how it supports the partnerships and commercial arrangements around its driving systems. Warburton, Wayve’s CFO since 2024, will remain involved as a strategic adviser.