Sam Altman-Backed Robocar Startup Glydways Hires Legal Chief

Glydways Inc. has hired JoAnn Covington as its new chief legal officer, a little more than a month after the robocar network startup secured $76 million in financing from investors led by OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Suzuki Motor Corp.

Covington touted her new role at Glydways in a LinkedIn post this week that said she’s excited to join a team at the clean energy and transportation technology company “revolutionizing urban mobility.”

The South San Francisco-based Glydways, whose recent Series B fundraising also included a previous investment from Bill Gates’ Gates Frontier venture fund and Khosla Ventures, is looking to expand its operations into Southeast Asia. In addition to Altman’s investment fund, Apollo Projects, other investors in Glydways include oil refinery operator Eneos Holdings Inc. and Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

Founded in 2016 by Mark Seeger, Glydways is building an exclusive track for its autonomous vehicles in San Jose, California, which will shuttle passengers between the city’s airport and central train station as soon as 2028.

The company and Covington didn’t immediately respond to comment requests.

Covington most recently was a corporate development adviser to the chief executive of electric battery startup Sparkz Inc. Prior to that she spent more than a half-dozen years at Proterra Inc., an electric bus company that filed for bankruptcy last summer despite receiving millions of dollars in pandemic financial aid from the US government.

Proterra disclosed in a securities filing that Covington earned almost $1.8 million in total compensation during fiscal 2022, as well as more than $200,000 in severance after her resignation from the company as of March 27, 2023.

Covington served as Proterra’s legal chief, head of government relations, and corporate secretary. Proterra, advised by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, emerged from Chapter 11 protection earlier this year.