According to foreign media reports, Swedish driverless truck startup Einride is discussing with banks about listing on the U.S. stock market later this year.
Einride’s major shareholders include private equity firm EQT and US investment management firm Capital Group, which may be listed as early as this fall, people familiar with the matter said. With the market’s strong interest in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence technologies, the company is also seeking to raise at least $200 million in a round of financing ahead of its IPO.
The financing could put Einride at $3 billion, up from its previous $1.1 billion valuation. Banks expect their initial public offering to be worth more than $5 billion based on market demand for driverless trucks and autonomous driving technologies. It is understood that Einride’s revenue in 2024 is US$43 million and the order amount is approximately US$830 million.
This means the company will follow in the footsteps of domestic Swedish startups such as streaming music service platform Spotify and payment technology company Klarna, becoming the latest European startup to target U.S. stocks. It is reported that Einride’s largest market is in the United States, with many of its customers and shareholders in the United States.
“At present, the field of autonomous trucks is very popular. The market is very interested in the AI-driven industry. Several of Einride’s peers are highly valued.”
Einride declined to comment on the above news.
Einride will also recently announce that it has started operations in the United Arab Emirates, which may be the world’s largest driverless truck project. The project, first announced in 2023, will involve 200 autonomous trucks and 100 manned vehicles. Together, they will build a freight network with a planned length of 550 kilometers in the UAE.
It is reported that Einride was founded in Sweden in 2016 by Robert Falck and Linnéa Kornehed Falck. The company’s self-driving electric truck has a compelling appearance and was first commercially operated in 2018. A year later, it became the first company to deploy fully autonomous trucks on public roads.
Most of the popular concerns in autonomous driving technology are focused on the field of autonomous taxis, but driverless heavy trucks have become another important competitive area between startups.
The global highway freight market size is as high as US$4.6 trillion. Due to the shortage of drivers, rising transportation costs and the increasing number of online parcels, the road freight market has great potential for autonomous driving applications.
Consulting firm McKinsey estimates that the global self-driving heavy truck market will generate $616 billion in revenue by 2035, of which $327 billion will come from China, $178 billion from the United States and $112 billion from Europe.