Einride Surges Up to 90% in Nasdaq Debut After SPAC Deal Closes at $1.35 Billion Valuation

Autonomous EV freight trucking company Einride rose as much as 90% in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, debuting under the ticker symbol "ENRD" after completing a SPAC merger that valued the company at $1.35 billion.

The Swedish company went public through a deal with Legato Merger Corp. III, raising over $200 million in gross proceeds. That figure included $113 million in PIPE capital from institutional investors, among them Stockholm-based EQT Ventures.

The $1.35 billion pre-equity valuation at final shareholder approval represented a step down from the $1.8 billion figure attached to the deal when it was first proposed last November.

Founded in 2016, Einride makes heavy-duty, cab-less autonomous electric trucks and provides freight services for driver-operated electric vehicles. Its technology portfolio also includes an operational planning AI software platform and an autonomous driving system that can be licensed to third parties.

CEO Roozbeh Charli framed the listing as a capital-raising exercise tied to growth rather than a change in strategy. "We've proven out the product and tech with a large set of customers and now it is about pushing the throttle and scaling in these relationships, and in order to do that, we need to invest," Charli said in a "Squawk Box" interview on Wednesday.

The company currently operates approximately 200 electric freight trucks across a customer base of more than 30 enterprises in seven countries. Einride reported approximately $92 million in expected annual recurring revenue from signed contracts, with over $800 million in potential long-term ARR through joint business plans.

Customers include GE Appliances, Swedish online pharmacy Apotea, and PepsiCo, which has piloted Einride freight solutions in Germany and in Memphis, Tennessee. Heineken added EV freight routes between the Netherlands and Germany in 2024, and to Austria. Mars has committed to deploying 300 electric trucks across Europe with Einride by 2030. The company is also deploying 75 manually operated electric heavy-duty trucks in Amazon's Relay freight network.

Charli said the company's current deployments are already generating returns for customers. "You need to be cost efficient, and our customer deployments are already profitable today," he said. He also argued that the combination of electric and autonomous technology represents the lowest-cost freight option in most scenarios going forward.

Einride holds regulatory permits in both the United States and Europe and competes in a crowded autonomous trucking landscape that includes Aurora Innovation, Kodiak AI, and Waabi. Aurora recently announced a deal with Volvo Autonomous Solutions for a 200-mile freight corridor between Dallas and Oklahoma City, while Kodiak AI expects to have driverless semis on long-haul routes in the second half of this year. Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary McLane is also planning to deploy Aurora's technology across Texas and the broader U.S. Sun Belt by year-end.

Texas has emerged as the primary deployment hub for autonomous freight companies, owing to a light regulatory environment, favorable weather conditions, and the high volume of freight moving along Sun Belt routes stretching from Texas to Arizona and California.

Einride's public debut comes as the autonomous trucking sector enters what the industry broadly describes as a period of rapid commercial scaling. Whether the company's existing customer base and ARR pipeline prove sufficient to justify Wednesday's first-day gains will likely depend on how quickly it can convert its joint business plan commitments into deployed trucks and contracted revenue.

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