SANTA CLARA, Calif., August 25, 2026 — Gatik has raised $200 million in new funding as the autonomous vehicle company enters a new stage of commercial growth. The Santa Clara-based startup, known for its driverless box trucks, secured the financing two months after announcing a multiyear commercial agreement with PepsiCo. The round was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Millennium Management, ARK Invest and Intact Private Capital. Gatik has raised roughly $500 million since emerging from stealth in 2019, although the company has not disclosed its valuation.

The financing is Gatik’s largest to date and comes as the company moves beyond its early pilot programs into commercial operations across several locations. Gatik now serves major businesses in retail, grocery and food distribution, with dozens of autonomous trucks operating without drivers. Gautam Narang, Gatik’s co-founder and CEO, said the new investors are long-term financial partners capable of supporting the company’s expansion plans over the coming years. The funding will support hiring, fleet growth, new markets and further expansion in locations where Gatik already operates.

From Short Routes to Long-Distance Freight

Gatik entered the autonomous vehicle sector with a specific focus on middle-mile logistics. While other companies developed robotaxis, sidewalk delivery robots, autonomous long-haul trucks, and vehicles for mining and construction, Gatik built driverless box trucks to move goods between distribution facilities and stores. Its early operations consisted of fixed routes of less than 10 miles. Those routes have since expanded to dynamic journeys involving dozens of pickup and drop-off locations and distances of up to 400 miles.

Gatik now operates dozens of autonomous trucks across several markets. The company says its third-generation technology enables vehicles to run around the clock on surface streets and highways and to handle light rain and snow. Last year, Gatik reached a technical and operational milestone that allowed it to remove the safety driver from its commercial routes. That development changed the economics of its freight operations by removing the driver from the vehicle and creating the potential for a different cost structure across recurring delivery routes.

PepsiCo Brings Scale to the Operation

Gatik’s commercial relationship with PepsiCo provides one of the most visible examples of its technology operating within an established supply chain. The partnership involves 41 driverless box trucks transporting Frito-Lay products, including Cheetos and Doritos, between distribution centers and stores in Dallas, Phoenix and Northwest Arkansas. Rather than serving as occasional demonstrations, these deployments place Gatik’s vehicles within recurring delivery networks, while giving PepsiCo autonomous capacity for transportation between distribution facilities and retail locations.

PepsiCo is one of several major companies working with Gatik. The startup has also worked with Loblaw, Kroger and Tyson Foods, while Walmart was its first disclosed customer when Gatik emerged from stealth six years ago. These relationships connect the company with large supply chains that require frequent movement of products between facilities. Gatik says its commercial agreements now represent more than $600 million in contracted revenue, providing a substantial base of business as it prepares for the next stage of expansion.

Capital Fuels Fleet and Workforce Growth

The latest financing gives Gatik additional resources to expand its operations and workforce. The company currently employs about 350 people and plans to hire more engineers and operational personnel as it adds vehicles, enters new markets and manages additional commercial routes. Autonomous trucking requires expertise across vehicle technology, software, remote operations, fleet management, safety systems and customer integration, making workforce expansion an important part of Gatik’s plans.

Fleet growth will also require vehicles and supporting infrastructure. Gatik has not disclosed its precise fleet size, but its commercial operations now span several cities and include both surface streets and highways. Qatar Investment Authority brings a major global institutional investor into the company’s latest financing, while Koch Disruptive Technologies has backed Gatik in previous funding. Millennium Management, ARK Invest and Intact Private Capital also participated. Narang said these investors can provide the financial backing needed for Gatik’s scale-up plans over the next several years.

Photo credit: Gatik

Driverless Freight Moves Toward Commercial Scale

Gatik’s progress reflects a larger question within autonomous transportation: which applications can move from technology demonstrations into lasting commercial businesses? Robotaxis, long-haul trucking, delivery robots and industrial autonomous vehicles each face different technical, regulatory and economic requirements. Gatik has focused on middle-mile freight, where vehicles travel between established commercial locations while still encountering the streets, highways, traffic patterns and weather found in everyday transportation.

The company’s progression from short fixed routes to larger freight networks, followed by the removal of safety drivers from commercial operations, provides a path toward wider deployment. The next stage will test how effectively Gatik can replicate those operations across additional markets while maintaining reliable vehicle performance. Fleet expansion, recruitment and customer growth will require significant investment, but the company enters this phase with more than $600 million in contracted revenue and relationships with PepsiCo, Walmart, Loblaw, Kroger and Tyson Foods. With $200 million in fresh capital, Gatik now has additional resources to expand a commercial freight business built around driverless box trucks and further establish autonomous transportation as a working part of major supply chains.