By Nick Carey

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Croatian autonomous vehicle startup Project 3 Mobility said on Tuesday it has closed its Series A funding round and has now raised around 100 million euros ($107 million) from private investors to finance product development.

The startup is developing a fully-autonomous electric vehicle to run urban robotaxi services, complete with an app for consumers and a hub for charging, cleaning and maintaining its vehicles.

The investors in the Series A round included TASARU Mobility Investments, a unit of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), joining existing investors in the startup that include South Korean automaker Kia and Croat electric vehicle maker Rimac Group.

In May last year, Project 3 Mobility also received a European Commission grant of 179.5 million euros to develop a new urban mobility system based on autonomous vehicle technology.

The startup estimates that it will need a total of around 535 million euros to bring its product to market.

"Looking ahead, over the next two years we continue to attract private capital, aligned with the needs of our project's implementation," CEO said Marko Pejkovic said in a statement.

Project 3 Mobility said its first robotaxi service will be launched in Zagreb - in 2026, according to its web site - followed by other cities in Europe and the Middle East.

Autonomous vehicle developers raised billions late in the last decade on the imminent promise of robotaxis within years, though it has proven much more difficult and costly to get vehicles to react as quickly as humans to emergency situations.

General Motors's autonomous unit Cruise trimmed a quarter of its staff and grounded its entire U.S. fleet after an October accident in which a woman was dragged 20 feet (6.1 meters) by a vehicle in San Francisco after being struck by a human driver.

According to industry officials, Cruise faces a long road to convince regulators and a wary public that its robotaxis are fit to share the road with human drivers.

($1 = 0.9315 euros) (Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)