Gatik raises $200M to scale driverless middle-mile trucking after PepsiCo deal

Gatik, the Santa Clara-based startup that runs driverless box trucks for short-haul freight, has raised $200 million in a round led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. According to TechCrunch, which reported the news, the funding lands just two months after Gatik signed a multiyear commercial agreement with PepsiCo, and it is the company's largest round to date.

Millennium Management, ARK Invest and Intact Private Capital also participated. The round brings Gatik's total funding to roughly $500 million since it emerged from stealth in 2019; the company did not disclose its valuation. Co-founder and CEO Gautam Narang told TechCrunch the new backers are investors with a long-term horizon, suited to the growth the company has in mind for the next several years — more driverless trucks, more customers and more cities, and eventually expansion beyond North America.

A deliberate niche

While much of the autonomous vehicle industry chased robotaxis, sidewalk delivery robots or long-haul big rigs, Gatik concentrated on the "middle mile": the stretch of the supply chain between distribution centers and retail stores. The company operates a fleet of driverless box trucks built by Isuzu Motors. It started small, with fixed routes shorter than 10 miles, and has since progressed to dynamic routes with dozens of pick-up and drop-off locations spanning up to 400 miles.

TechCrunch reports that Gatik largely has this slice of the market to itself and holds a leading position in middle-mile delivery. Its customer list includes Canada's Loblaws, Kroger and Tyson Foods, and its first customer, revealed six years ago, was Walmart.

Driverless, not pilot

The detail that separates Gatik from many autonomy startups is that its trucks no longer carry safety drivers. According to TechCrunch, the company reached a key milestone last year that allowed it to remove safety drivers from its commercial routes, and it now has dozens of fully driverless trucks running commercially across several markets and in a range of conditions.

Narang said the company's third-generation trucks run day and night on both surface streets and highways, and keep operating through light rain and snow. Gatik declined to share precise fleet numbers or name all of its customers, but its largest public partnership is with PepsiCo: 41 driverless box trucks shuttle Frito-Lay products such as Cheetos and Doritos from distribution centers to stores in Dallas, Phoenix and Northwest Arkansas. Narang put the company's contracted revenue at $600 million.

Where the money goes

The new capital is intended to speed up expansion. Narang told TechCrunch the company plans to grow beyond its current 350-person workforce by hiring engineers and operational staff, and to enter new markets or deepen its presence in existing ones.

Why it matters

The round is a marker of where autonomous driving is actually earning revenue: not in robotaxis but in freight corridors with predictable, repeatable routes. Middle-mile delivery bounds the autonomy problem — moderate speeds, known routes, defined stops — which makes it a credible early business rather than a research program. Gatik's $600 million in contracted revenue and a roster spanning Walmart, Kroger, Tyson Foods, Loblaws and now PepsiCo suggest that major shippers are willing to commit multiyear budgets to driverless operations.

The timing also matters. Closing the company's largest round two months after locking in the PepsiCo agreement signals that investors see demonstrated commercial demand and want to fund rapid growth before competitors — whether long-haul trucking players broadening their scope or newer entrants — move into the same territory. If Gatik's plans hold, driverless box trucks moving snacks and groceries between warehouses and stores may become ordinary infrastructure on North American roads rather than a novelty.