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Gatik goals to automate the center mile of deliveries with its autonomous know-how. | Source: Gatik
Microsoft Corp is in talks to spend money on Gatik, in line with reporting from Reuters. Microsoft plans to speculate $10 million into the autonomous trucking startup as a part of a funding spherical that may worth Gatik at greater than $700 million.
While Microsoft is in superior talks with Gatik, the phrases of the deal haven’t been finalized and will nonetheless change.
As a part of the deal, Gatik will use Microsoft’s Azure, a cloud and edge computing platform, to develop its autonomous supply know-how. Microsoft has beforehand invested in Cruise, one other autonomous driving startup, though Cruise is creating autonomous robotaxis. Cruise additionally makes use of the Azure platform for its autonomous robotaxis.
Gatik’s autonomous trucking platform is utilized in mild to medium-duty vans to automate the center mile in deliveries, which means Gatik takes objects from micro-fulfillment facilities and darkish shops and drops them off at pick-up factors, like retail shops and distribution facilities. The firm’s vans function seven days per week, 12 hours a day on routes with fastened pick-up and drop-off places.
In June 2022, Gatik introduced that it signed a multi-year partnership with Georgia-Pacific, a distributor of tissue, pulp and paper-based packaging, and KBX, the transportation arm for Koch Industries. As a part of the partnership, Gatik will automate a few of the Georgia-Pacific-KBX on-road transportation networks within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, delivering items throughout a community of 34 Sam’s Club places.
The firm hit a brand new milestone with its partnership with Walmart in November 2021. The firm mentioned it not has a human security driver behind the wheel of two Level 4 autonomous field vans working in Bentonville, Arkansas, which is the house of the retail big.
Since its founding in 2017, Gatik has raised $114.5 million in funding. Its final funding spherical, a Series B spherical, closed in August 2021 and totaled $85 million. The Series B spherical was led by new investor Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT). Existing traders Innovation Endeavours, Wittington Ventures, FM Capital, Dynamo Ventures, Trucks VC, Intact Ventures and others additionally participated.