Kodiak AI raises $100M at a steep discount, sending its stock tumbling 37%
Kodiak AI raises $100M at a steep discount, sending its stock tumbling 37%
Kodiak AI 以大幅折价融资 1 亿美元，股价应声暴跌 37%
Kodiak AI’s stock tumbled 37% in after-hours trading Thursday after the self-driving truck startup disclosed it had raised $100 million by selling shares at a steep discount — a sign that investors were willing to back the company but not at its current market price. 周四盘后交易中，自动驾驶卡车初创公司 Kodiak AI 的股价暴跌 37%。此前该公司披露，已通过大幅折价出售股票的方式融资 1 亿美元——这表明投资者虽然愿意支持该公司，但并不认可其当前的市场价格。
The company sold shares at $6.50 each, well below its closing price of $9.10, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The raise also included warrants — instruments that give investors the right to buy additional shares later at a set price, in this case as low as $6. The financing came from existing backer Ares Management and several unnamed institutional investors. 根据提交给美国证券交易委员会（SEC）的文件显示，该公司以每股 6.50 美元的价格出售股票，远低于其 9.10 美元的收盘价。此次融资还包括认股权证——即赋予投资者在未来以设定价格购买额外股票的权利，此次认购价格低至 6 美元。这笔融资来自现有支持者 Ares Management 以及几家未具名的机构投资者。
The influx of capital comes as Kodiak pushes forward on the expensive task of scaling its self-driving trucks business, which covers off-road industrial settings and public highways, with the ultimate goal of eventually spending less than it earns. Kodiak reported revenue of $1.8 million in the first quarter, up from the $1.4 million it logged in same period a year prior. The company’s loss from operations was $37.8 million, twice what it reported in the same period last year. Those numbers help explain why the discount terms rattled investors. The company is burning cash fast, and the raise — while sizable — does little to change that math in the near term. 此次资金注入正值 Kodiak 推进其自动驾驶卡车业务规模化的昂贵任务之际，该业务涵盖非公路工业环境和公共高速公路，其最终目标是实现收支平衡。Kodiak 第一季度报告营收为 180 万美元，高于去年同期的 140 万美元。公司运营亏损为 3780 万美元，是去年同期亏损额的两倍。这些数据解释了为何折价条款会让投资者感到不安。该公司正处于快速烧钱阶段，尽管此次融资规模可观，但在短期内几乎无法改变这一财务状况。
Kodiak has made some recent progress on the business front, including a new commercial contract with Roehl Transport, a pilot program to test Kodiak-equipped autonomous trucks at West Fraser Timber Co.’s log-hauling operations in Alberta, Canada, and a collaboration with the military vehicle maker General Dynamics Land Systems to create autonomous ground vehicles for defense applications. Under the deal with Roehl, which was also announced Thursday, Kodiak-equipped trucks will autonomously haul freight between Dallas and Houston on four round trips per week. The trucks operate autonomously on the entirety of the trip, but Kodiak keeps a human safety operator behind the wheel as a precaution. Kodiak 最近在业务方面取得了一些进展，包括与 Roehl Transport 签订了一份新的商业合同；在加拿大阿尔伯塔省 West Fraser Timber Co. 的原木运输业务中开展试点项目，测试配备 Kodiak 系统的自动驾驶卡车；以及与军用车辆制造商通用动力陆地系统公司（General Dynamics Land Systems）合作，为国防应用开发自动驾驶地面车辆。根据周四宣布的与 Roehl 的协议，配备 Kodiak 系统的卡车将每周往返达拉斯和休斯顿四次，进行自动货运。卡车在整个行程中均自动驾驶，但出于安全考虑，Kodiak 仍会在驾驶座上配备一名人类安全员。
Kodiak founder and CEO Don Burnette said the company is on track to move to driverless trucking on public highways later this year as it ramps up operations. “We have tons of over-the-road long haul initiatives, and bringing on new partners continues to show momentum,” he said in an interview. “We’re excited about the progress that we’re making as we march toward our driverless launch later this year.” Kodiak 创始人兼首席执行官 Don Burnette 表示，随着运营规模的扩大，公司有望在今年晚些时候在公共高速公路上实现无人驾驶卡车运输。“我们有大量的公路长途运输计划，引入新的合作伙伴持续展现出增长势头，”他在接受采访时说。“我们对在迈向今年晚些时候推出无人驾驶服务过程中所取得的进展感到兴奋。”
For now, Kodiak owns the trucks, provides the safety driver, and carries the freight for Roehl along with its other existing on-highway customers, which include Werner, J.B. Hunt, Bridgestone, Martin Brower, and C.R. England. But that arrangement will change once it goes to driverless trucking operations. “Our intention is to not own the trucks at that point [but to] operate our driver-as-a-service model, where [customers] own and operate the trucks,” Burnette said. He added that this is the system it uses with its off-highway customer Atlas for its driverless deployment in the Permian Basin of Texas. 目前，Kodiak 拥有这些卡车，提供安全驾驶员，并为 Roehl 以及其他现有的公路客户（包括 Werner、J.B. Hunt、Bridgestone、Martin Brower 和 C.R. England）运输货物。但一旦进入无人驾驶运营阶段，这种安排将会改变。Burnette 说：“我们的意图是在那个阶段不再拥有卡车，而是运营我们的‘驾驶员即服务’模式，由客户自己拥有并运营卡车。”他补充说，这正是该公司目前与其非公路客户 Atlas 在德克萨斯州二叠纪盆地进行无人驾驶部署时所采用的系统。
While Kodiak plans to pull the safety driver by the end of 2026, Burnette said it won’t start driverless operations on public highways until it has finished validating the technology. “It’s already operating under all of the conditions that we expect to launch driverless, but there’s a lot of validation work that we need to do, and that’s where we bring in our autonomy readiness measure,” Burnette said, describing the initiative — released Thursday — as a zero-to-100 score tracking how much of Kodiak’s internal safety validation is complete. As of April, Kodiak was at 86%, Burnette said. 虽然 Kodiak 计划在 2026 年底前撤走安全员，但 Burnette 表示，在完成技术验证之前，不会在公共高速公路上启动无人驾驶运营。“它已经在我们预期推出无人驾驶的所有条件下运行，但我们还需要做大量的验证工作，这就是我们引入‘自动驾驶就绪度指标’的原因，”Burnette 说道。他将周四发布的这一举措描述为一个 0 到 100 的评分系统，用于追踪 Kodiak 内部安全验证的完成进度。Burnette 表示，截至 4 月，Kodiak 的得分已达到 86%。
The company, which was previously called Kodiak Robotics, went public in September via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Ares Acquisition Corporation II, an affiliate of Ares Management. The deal valued the startup at about $2.5 billion. At the time, Kodiak raised $275 million in financing. More than $212.5 million came from certain institutional investors, including $145 million in PIPE funding (Private Investment in Public Equity, a method by which investors purchase shares directly from a public company) and about $62.9 million in trust cash from Ares. That trust cash shrank from its initial $562 million as some SPAC investors redeemed their shares — a standard provision that lets SPAC investors recover their money before a merger closes. 该公司原名 Kodiak Robotics，于 9 月通过与 Ares Management 旗下的特殊目的收购公司（SPAC）Ares Acquisition Corporation II 合并上市。该交易对这家初创公司的估值约为 25 亿美元。当时，Kodiak 筹集了 2.75 亿美元的资金。其中超过 2.125 亿美元来自特定的机构投资者，包括 1.45 亿美元的 PIPE 融资（即私募股权投资公开股票，投资者直接从上市公司购买股票的一种方式）以及约 6290 万美元来自 Ares 的信托现金。由于部分 SPAC 投资者赎回了股份（这是一项允许 SPAC 投资者在合并完成前收回资金的标准条款），该信托现金从最初的 5.62 亿美元缩水。