Gatik raises $200M to grow driverless fleet past 100 trucks this year

EMERGING TECH

Autonomous trucking company Gatik AI Inc. today announced a $200 million Series D round to expand its driverless fleet.

Gatik said the money will take it from dozens of trucks on the road today to more than 100 by the end of this year. Founded in 2017, Gatik’s trucks work short regional routes, running loads from distribution centers out to retail stores. Driverless orders completed to date total 85,000, Gatik said, and 99% of them arrived on time.

PepsiCo Inc. is the biggest name on the customer roster, and since signing a multiyear agreement in June it has put 41 driverless Gatik trucks onto Frito-Lay runs around Dallas, Phoenix and northwest Arkansas. Walmart Inc. was the first big-name customer to be disclosed, and Kroger Co., Tyson Foods Inc. and Canada’s Loblaw Cos. Ltd. followed.

Contracted revenue across the customer base runs past $600 million. The trucks operate in Texas, Arizona and Arkansas, plus Canada.

The trucks come off manufacturer assembly lines, and Gatik supplies the autonomy. Third-generation vehicles carrying its Gatik Driver system run around the clock on surface streets and highways. Light rain and snow no longer stop them.

Safety drivers came out of the commercial routes within the past year. Early routes were fixed and ran under 10 miles. Dynamic routing is pushing that out to as much as 400 miles, with multiple pickup and drop-off points along the way.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Gautam Narang called the round “a clear validation of Gatik’s commercial leadership in autonomous freight.” The money buys the company room to “scale with speed and discipline” and serve the world’s largest companies, he said.

Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies led the financing. Millennium Management, ARK Investment Management and Intact Private Capital also took part. Koch’s venture arm is a returning backer that led Gatik’s $85 million Series B in 2021. Intact tripled its commitment this time.

Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Investment Management, said that autonomous freight has reached “an inflection point” as artificial intelligence and robotics converge. Gatik has demonstrated that autonomous trucking is moving past experimentation into commercially viable operations, she said.

The Series D takes total raised by Gatik to roughly $500 million.

Photo: Gatik