Kodiak delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology. | Source: Kodiak Robotics
Kodiak Robotics Inc. yesterday announced that it will be going public via a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The developer of AI-powered autonomous vehicle technology agreed to be acquired by Ares Acquisition Corporation II, or AACT, an affiliate of Ares Management Corp. Through this combination, Kodiak will become a publicly listed company.
“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,” stated Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. “We believe entering the public markets will accelerate our strategy to expand our existing partner relationships, provide our technology to a broader customer base, and deliver enhanced solutions across the commercial trucking and public-sector industries.”
Founded in 2018 by Don Burnette, an industry veteran, Kodiak said it has developed technology to address critical challenges in the transportation industry. These include driver shortages, demands for shorter delivery timelines, and rising costs. The company’s single-platform automated driving system, the Kodiak Driver, combines advanced artificial intelligence software with modular hardware.
The Kodiak Driver integrates lessons from commercial trucking and public-sector applications to continuously improve AI models and increase reliability and efficiency in a wide range of environments, said the Mountain View, Calif.-based company. It claimed that customers can easily integrate its technology with their existing operations, providing a flexible, scalable, “Driver-as-a-Service” system tailored to their needs.
Kodiak Robotics marks recent milestones
The Kodiak Driver has logged more than 2.6 million autonomous miles in real-world conditions. Kodiak Robotics also said it developed the system for scalability and adaptability to all vehicle types.
Through its partnership with Atlas Energy Solutions, the company said driverless trucks have surpassed 750 hours of commercial driverless operations across West Texas’s Permian Basin without a human driver on board. It said it expects to support Atlas in further expanding its fleet in 2025. Last month, it secured a firm commitment from Atlas to order an initial 100 trucks.
Kodiak Robotics tailored its Driver-as-a-Service business model to meet customer needs by charging either a per-truck or a per-mile recurring license fee. Today, the company is earning recurring revenue through its partnership with Atlas, and it owns and operates autonomous trucks that generate a fee paid per delivery.
In addition to Atlas, Kodiak has collaborated with major industry players, including Bridgestone, C.R. England, J.B. Hunt, Martin Brower, and Werner Enterprises. In addition, the U.S. Department of defense has awarded a contract to the company, which has received approximately $30 million to adapt its autonomous technology for U.S. Army vehicles.
In 2024, Kodiak delivered to first driverless trucking product to a customer. It added that its systems can bring down costs and enhance safety in the commercial trucking and public-sector markets. By partnering with AACT and accessing the public markets, Kodiak said it expects to accelerate its go-to-market strategy.
The company won a 2024 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for its autonomous test pickup truck for the U.S. military.
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SPAC deal grants access to $551M
According to the merger announcement, Kodiak Robotics’ pre-money equity totaled $2.5 billion. The combined company will have access to approximately $551 million of cash held in AACT’s trust account at closing. This is assuming no redemptions of existing AACT shares and is based on the trust value per share as of Dec. 31, 2024.
Other institutional investors have invested or committed more than $110 million to support the transaction. These include affiliates of Soros Fund Management, ARK Investments, and Ares.
“We believe Kodiak’s scalable technology, combined with its established network, position the company to meet the evolving and growing demands of its customers and communities,” said Allyson Satin, chief operating officer of AACT and a partner at Ares.
The boards of directors of both Kodiak and AACT have unanimously approved the proposed business combination. Kodiak said it expects the merger to close in the second half of 2025. It is subject to approval by AACT and Kodiak stockholders and the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions.
Upon the closing of the proposed business combination, the combined company will be named Kodiak AI Inc. Its common stock and public warrants will be listed on a national stock exchange and trade under the ticker symbols KDK and KDK WS, respectively.
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