100 million dollars for autonomous electric trucks from Einride

Swedish company Einride, which has developed an autonomous electric truck, is receiving 100 million US dollars from EQT Ventures and other investors. The fresh capital is intended to usher in a new phase of growth for Einride.

Einride ebot scania electric trucks — Image: Einride

Einride was founded in Sweden in 2016 and develops and operates a new freight ecosystem that uses only electric trucks and the corresponding fleet and charging management software. In Europe, the company already works with companies such as Rewe, Kaufland, Carlsberg and PepsiCo, but has so far used conventional electric trucks from manufacturers such as Daimler Truck and Scania.

The company is also active in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. For example, it launched an electric freight solution this year for the port operator DP World in the port of Jebel Ali in Dubai.

However, Einride’s main goal is to handle heavy transport not only fully electrically, but also autonomously. To this end, Einride unveiled its autonomous Gen 2 Rigid Large electric truck in 2022, which was recently renamed eBot. The vehicle has no driver’s cab and therefore no steering wheel, accelerator pedal or brake.

Einride’s investors are keenly backing the vision of autonomous heavy goods transport: “We believe Einride is building the most complete and forward-looking freight ecosystem on the market today,” says Ted Persson, partner at EQT Ventures. “Nordic tech has a habit of being underestimated, until it quietly rewires an entire industry.” Like Einride, EQT Ventures is based in Sweden.

According to Bloomberg, the new round of investment has valued the company at more than US$1 billion for the first time, making it one of the ‘unicorns’. According to this agency report, Einride is also considering an initial public offering in the United States.

Growing with autonomous freight technology

“I am excited and proud for the continued trust our investors have placed in us,” said Roozbeh Charli, CEO of Einride. “This funding allows us to grow with our customer base and accelerate the deployment of our autonomous freight technology. It’s a strong signal of confidence in both our team and our unique position in the market.”

Einride has been in the news several times in recent weeks and months, for example, with a demonstration of its self-developed autonomous electric truck on public roads in the port of Antwerp-Bruges and with the first border crossing of this autonomous vehicle between Sweden and Norway.

einride.tech, techcrunch.com, bloomberg.com

This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition