Gatik raises $200M two months after signing PepsiCo trucking deal

Gatik, the autonomous vehicle startup known for its self-driving box trucks, has raised $200 million just two months after striking a multiyear commercial agreement with PepsiCo. The round was led by the Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Millennium Management, ARK Invest, and Intact Private Capital. The Santa Clara, California-based company has raised about $500 million since it came out of stealth in 2019; it didn’t disclose its valuation.

The funding — the company’s largest to date — marks a new phase for Gatik as it evolves from a startup with a few pilot programs into one running commercial driverless routes for multiple customers across several cities. “These are all long-term investors” who can back its scale-up plans for the next few years, said Gatik co-founder and CEO Gautam Narang.

While dozens of startups and well-funded companies have chased sidewalk delivery robots, robotaxis, long-haul self-driving rigs, and driverless vehicles for construction or mining, Gatik has focused narrowly on short-haul “middle-mile” delivery. Its fleet of driverless box trucks, built by Isuzu Motors, moves food and beverages for suppliers — starting with fixed routes under 10 miles and growing into dynamic routes covering up to 400 miles with dozens of pickup and drop-off points. Gatik largely has that niche to itself, with customers including Canada’s Loblaws, Kroger, and Tyson Foods; its first customer, disclosed six years ago, was Walmart.

Last year, Gatik hit a milestone that let it pull the safety driver from behind the wheel on commercial routes. “The technology has evolved and matured a lot over the last few years, especially with the latest generation of our tech,” Narang said, noting the company’s third-generation trucks now run around the clock on surface streets and highways and can handle light rain and snow. Gatik’s largest public partnership is with PepsiCo, where 41 driverless trucks shuttle Frito-Lay products such as Cheetos and Doritos from distribution centers to stores in Dallas, Phoenix, and Northwest Arkansas.

That niche has paid off: Gatik has locked in commercial deals worth $600 million in contracted revenue, according to Narang. The fresh $200 million will let the company scale faster, which will require expanding beyond its current 350-person workforce — Narang said Gatik plans to hire engineers and operations staff and expand into new and existing markets.

Why it matters

The raise signals investors’ growing confidence in autonomous middle-mile trucking as a near-term commercial business, not just a research bet, as Gatik moves from pilots to scaled, driverless operations across multiple cities.