U.S. self-driving truck company Outrider announced on Thursday that it has raised $62 million from investors to expand its autonomous truck services in distribution yards, catering to clients in e-commerce, manufacturing, and other sectors.
The Series D funding round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, the venture capital arm of industrial conglomerate Koch, along with New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a prominent American venture capital firm. The funding round also saw contributions from Nvidia’s (NVDA.O) venture capital division, NVentures, and Prologis’ (PLD.N) venture capital arm.
With this latest investment, Outrider, based in Brighton, Colorado, has now raised over $250 million to date. The company’s system employs self-driving electric yard trucks equipped with robotic arms capable of coupling and uncoupling tractors and trailers, as well as navigating between dock doors and parking spots.
The development of fully autonomous vehicles that can operate in varied environments has proven to be more challenging and costly than anticipated. While funding for robotaxi startups has significantly declined, investment has continued for companies focused on simpler self-driving vehicle solutions that operate in environments with limited pedestrian interaction, such as truck yards and airports.
