Kodiak delivers freight each day for its prospects throughout the southern United States utilizing its autonomous expertise. | Supply: Kodiak Robotics
Kodiak Robotics Inc. yesterday introduced that it is going to be going public through a special-purpose acquisition firm, or SPAC. The developer of AI-powered autonomous car expertise agreed to be acquired by Ares Acquisition Company II, or AACT, an affiliate of Ares Administration Corp. By this mixture, Kodiak will turn into a publicly listed firm.
“It is a exceptional milestone for the Kodiak staff and reinforces our confidence within the vital worth proposition we see in our differentiated driverless expertise,” said Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. “We consider getting into the general public markets will speed up our technique to broaden our present associate relationships, present our expertise to a broader buyer base, and ship enhanced options throughout the business trucking and public-sector industries.”
Based in 2018 by Don Burnette, an trade veteran, Kodiak stated it has developed expertise to handle vital challenges within the transportation trade. These embrace driver shortages, calls for for shorter supply timelines, and rising prices. The firm’s single-platform automated driving system, the Kodiak Driver, combines superior synthetic intelligence software program with modular {hardware}.
The Kodiak Driver integrates classes from business trucking and public-sector purposes to repeatedly enhance AI fashions and improve reliability and effectivity in a variety of environments, stated the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm. It claimed that prospects can simply combine its expertise with their present operations, offering a versatile, scalable, “Driver-as-a-Service” system tailor-made to their wants.
Kodiak Robotics marks current milestones
The Kodiak Driver has logged greater than 2.6 million autonomous miles in real-world circumstances. Kodiak Robotics additionally stated it developed the system for scalability and flexibility to all car sorts.
By its partnership with Atlas Power Options, the corporate stated driverless vans have surpassed 750 hours of economic driverless operations throughout West Texas’s Permian Basin and not using a human driver on board. It stated it expects to assist Atlas in additional increasing its fleet in 2025. Final month, it secured a agency dedication from Atlas to order an preliminary 100 vans.
Kodiak Robotics tailor-made its Driver-as-a-Service enterprise mannequin to fulfill buyer wants by charging both a per-truck or a per-mile recurring license charge. Right now, the corporate is incomes recurring income by means of its partnership with Atlas, and it owns and operates autonomous vans that generate a charge paid per supply.
Along with Atlas, Kodiak has collaborated with main trade gamers, together with Bridgestone, C.R. England, J.B. Hunt, Martin Brower, and Werner Enterprises. As well as, the U.S. Division of protection has awarded a contract to the corporate, which has acquired roughly $30 million to adapt its autonomous expertise for U.S. Military automobiles.
In 2024, Kodiak delivered to first driverless trucking product to a buyer. It added that its techniques can carry down prices and improve security within the business trucking and public-sector markets. By partnering with AACT and accessing the general public markets, Kodiak stated it expects to speed up its go-to-market technique.
The corporate gained a 2024 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for its autonomous take a look at pickup truck for the U.S. army.
Register now so you do not miss out!
SPAC deal grants entry to $551M
In keeping with the merger announcement, Kodiak Robotics’ pre-money fairness totaled $2.5 billion. The mixed firm can have entry to roughly $551 million of money held in AACT’s belief account at closing. That is assuming no redemptions of present AACT shares and relies on the belief worth per share as of Dec. 31, 2024.
Different institutional buyers have invested or dedicated greater than $110 million to assist the transaction. These embrace associates of Soros Fund Administration, ARK Investments, and Ares.
“We consider Kodiak’s scalable expertise, mixed with its established community, place the corporate to fulfill the evolving and rising calls for of its prospects and communities,” stated Allyson Satin, chief working officer of AACT and a associate at Ares.
The boards of administrators of each Kodiak and AACT have unanimously authorised the proposed enterprise mixture. Kodiak stated it expects the merger to shut within the second half of 2025. It’s topic to approval by AACT and Kodiak stockholders and the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing circumstances.
Upon the closing of the proposed enterprise mixture, the mixed firm might be named Kodiak AI Inc. Its widespread inventory and public warrants might be listed on a nationwide inventory alternate and commerce underneath the ticker symbols KDK and KDK WS, respectively.