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Gatik said the fresh capital will enable the company to accelerate fleet growth, enhance its AI technology and expand its workforce beyond the current 350 employees as it moves deeper into commercial deployments. The Santa Clara, California-based firm has now raised approximately $500 million since emerging from stealth in 2019 and did not disclose a valuation for the latest round. Its operations focus on the middle-mile segment, shuttling goods between distribution centers and retail outlets on fixed, high-frequency routes across Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and parts of Canada. The company has recorded more than $600 million in contracted revenue from these activities.
According to a Reuters report, Gatik has completed 85,000 fully driverless orders with a 99 percent on-time delivery rate. A multi-year agreement with PepsiCo announced in June 2026 has placed 41 driverless box trucks into the snack giant’s supply chain, delivering Cheetos, Doritos and other Frito-Lay products to stores in Dallas, Phoenix and Northwest Arkansas. Gatik also serves major customers including Walmart, Kroger, Tyson Foods and Canada’s Loblaw on similar routes. The startup aims to deploy more than 100 driverless trucks by the end of 2026.
The funding round was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Millennium Management, ARK Invest and Intact Private Capital. Gatik CEO and co-founder Gautam Narang said in remarks carried across multiple outlets that the company has built its business on real revenue, deep customer demand and AI-driven technology proven in live supply chains. “We have built Gatik with real revenue, deep customer demand, and AI-driven autonomous technology proven every day in live supply chains,” Narang said.
Qatar Investment Authority’s head of industrials, Abdulla Al-Kuwari, stated that autonomous freight is transforming the global logistics industry by making it more efficient and reliable. ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood added that the sector is reaching an inflection point where AI and robotics are converging to transform transportation. These investor comments underscore the growing confidence in autonomous middle-mile freight as a commercially viable model, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters.
Gatik first achieved sustained fully driverless freight at scale earlier in 2026, according to its own updates. The company partners with vehicle manufacturers like Isuzu and uses NVIDIA hardware for its Gatik Driver AI system. Its trucks operate nearly around the clock handling ambient, refrigerated and frozen goods for Fortune 50 retailers and grocers.
The announcement comes amid surging interest in driverless commercial vehicles in North America and Europe. Bloomberg reported that Narang intends to use the proceeds to grow operations in existing regions while adding new routes and customers. Industry observers note that Gatik’s repeatable routes have proven particularly suitable for automation compared to more variable long-haul applications.
