Einride completes SPAC deal, nabs Nasdaq listing

Autonomous freight company Einride AB completed its journey to a Nasdaq Exchange listing June 10 by finalizing its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.

The Nasdaq debut of Sweden-based Einride came a few days after shareholders of Legato Merger Corp. III approved the union of the two entities, which initially valued Einride at $1.8 billion but later lowered that figure to $1.35 billion. Investors drove up the price of Einride shares (Ticker: ENRD) significantly in morning trading June 10, and Nasdaq officials at one point paused activity. But the stock retreated from its heights and ended regular trading that day at $14.99 apiece, which valued Einride at about $2.2 billion.

By the end of last week, however, the stock had given up a lot of ground, closing the June 12 regular session at $9.39 after falling about 10% on the day. That means Einride's market value is now about $1.3 billion.

In the run-up to their Legato tie-up, Einride updated investors on the progress of its business. The company, which was founded in 2016, now has more than 30 enterprise customers in seven countries, they said, and annualized revenues are now about $92 million. That’s a sizable jump from late last year, when Einride was working with 25 customers and was booking sales at an annualized rate of $65 million.

Einride markets both freight capacity and software as a service, and today has about 200 trucks running on its platform. With the former, it delivers end-to-end autonomous and electric shipping solutions. It licenses its software to operators, original equipment manufacturers, and defense organizations.

“Einride started with the simple idea that freight could be done differently, and better,” Robert Falck, the company’s founder and executive chairman, said in a statement. “Today’s listing marks an important milestone for Einride and reflects the strength of the technology platform, the trust of our customers, and the work our team has done to build and scale a modern freight technology business.”

Beyond the revenue they are currently booking, Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli and his team say they have a pipeline of projects that could be worth more than $800 million. Several blue-chip names, such as GE Appliances, Heineken, Pepsi, and Mars, are running, have tested, or plan to adopt Einride’s services in part of their operations. To help them meet that potential, Einride’s leaders in March raised $113 million from a group of investors.

In going public, Einride joins autonomous trucking peers Aurora Innovation, Kodiak AI, and Pony AI in looking to grab a share of a market Einride’s leaders say is worth $4.6 trillion globally. Aurora’s market value is about $12 billion, while Kodiak is worth roughly $1.2 billion, and investors have given Pony a market capitalization of $3.5 billion.