Kodiak Robotics, a U.S.-based autonomous trucking startup, will go public following its announcement on Monday of a merger with Ares Acquisition Corporation II AACT, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
What happened: In an official statement, the company, which has logged over 2.6 million autonomous driving miles in ‘real-world conditions,’ announced its intention to go public. The transaction now fetches Kodiak a pre-money valuation of over $2.5 billion.
The company says it will receive about $551 million in cash held by Ares, and has announced commitments of $110 million from Ares, Soros Fund Management, founded by George Soros, and ARK Investments, led by CEO Cathie Wood. The company says the decision will help Kodiak address a $4 trillion global market opportunity.
The merger is expected to go through in the latter half of 2025, according to the statement. The company will then be called Kodiak AI, Inc. and will be traded under the KDK and KDK WS tickers, pending approval from the applicable exchange.
"This is a remarkable milestone for the Kodiak team and reinforces our confidence in the significant value proposition we see in our differentiated driverless technology,” said Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette.
Atlas Energy Solutions AESI, Kodiak’s strategic partner, has committed itself to an initial order of 100 trucks.
Why it matters: The decision comes at a time when the autonomous driving sector has seen development through major companies like Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG Waymo as well as Tesla Inc. TSLA
Waymo has logged over 20 million driverless miles, while Tesla recently shared its developments in Unsupervised Full Self-Driving tech for its vehicles. However, the company still lags behind Waymo, which uses a LiDAR system in contrast to Tesla's camera-based system.
Automation in transport is seeing more applications as companies adopt self-driving tech in their operations. Earlier in April, Serve Robotics Inc. SERV and Uber Technologies UBER, in partnership with Uber Eats, announced a self-driving delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
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