Autonomous trucking startup Stack AV raised a $1B Series A round backed by SoftBank last week.
This represents a marked shift for SoftBank, which has become more selective in its dealmaking and moved toward smaller deal sizes over the past couple of years.
As Stack AV bursts onto the scene, it faces some key challenges, like mounting regulatory pressure. For example, a bill banning autonomous trucking technology recently passed the California State Senate. Additionally, Stack AV will also have to contend with competition from several highly valued players in the autonomous trucking system space, including Nuro, Einride, and China’s UISEE.
Dive deeper into this data using the autonomous trucking systems market report.
Autonomous trucking has also seen some casualties over the years. Some of the space’s former highfliers have seen their fortunes change for the worse, including:
- Embark Trucks: SPAC’d in 2021 at a valuation of $5.2B. Subsequently acquired by Applied Intuition for $71M.
- Otto: Acquired by Uber for $680M in 2016. Shut down ~2 years later.
- TuSimple: Went public in April 2021 at an $8.5B valuation. Its market cap today is around $270M.
- Starsky Robotics: Valuation of $113M in 2018. The company shut down in March 2020.
While Stack AV’s recent round has spurred a rebound in autonomous trucking system funding, equity deal count is still down significantly from 2021. Deal count dropped 63% last year, and it is on pace to drop once again by year-end. This indicates that investors are generally more cautious about the space given the difficult exit environment and recent regulatory challenges. However, if this investor mindset shifts in line with SoftBank, the space could start trucking along once again.
To keep up with the latest autonomous trucking system trends and evaluate players in the space, check out this market report.
