Zeleros, the Valencia company that developed its own version of the Hyperloop, a train that travels at 1,000 kilometers per hour and zero emissions, has completed a funding round that brought Acciona, CAF and EIT InnoEnergy to its capital. Neither the company nor its new partners have announced the amount invested, but from Zeleros they have confirmed that the important thing in the process is that industrial partners are joining the project.
The construction company is leading this new round of investment and will contribute its vast experience and technical know-how to the construction of high-speed transmission lines to the project, having implemented projects of this kind in Spain, Italy or Norway, where the longest railway tunnels are currently being built in the Nordic countries as part of the project. Follow Line.
This initiative is in line with the concept of sustainable mobility that we advocate at Acciona and that is why we decided to support it. I think we have I know howCombined with our extensive experience in the field of rail transport, you will bring a significant added value to this project,” says Telmo Perez Luces, Innovation Director of the Infrastructure Division of the construction company, through a statement.
CAF Group, which specializes in the design and implementation of comprehensive mobility systems and transportation solutions, will also contribute its own expertise to the Zeleros project. “As experts in rail equipment, we will contribute all our experience to designing a robust capsule that will allow to reduce infrastructure costs and ensure safe and efficient operation,” says Lear Aguirre, Corporate and New Business Development at Basque.
Josep Mikkel Torigrosa, Director of New Business at EIT InnoEnergy Iberia, a company dedicated to sustainable energy and promoter of projects such as the European Battery Alliance, emphasized that his company is confident in the potential of Zeleros technology to connect the world in a sustainable way.
Zeleros insist that their three new investors provide the basic knowledge in the development of the hyperloop: the infrastructure, the vehicle and the framework for industrial development at the European level. Acciona, CAF and the energy company join 50 organizations already promoting the Spanish project, which wants to expand the boundaries of mobility as it is known today and has a team of more than 180 specialists.
Following the new round of funding, David Pistone, CEO and co-founder of Zeleros, confirmed that the European hyperloop project is progressing “at a steady pace”. “Spain is a leader in high-speed transportation systems and now also in hyperloop. The country promoted and chairs the world’s first hyperloop standardization committee and leads the European Hypernex project promoted by the European Commission organization Shift2Rail” continues the Director.
Along these lines, it should be noted that the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Transport have announced plans to establish the first European test track in Spain and that associations such as MAFEX or the Railway Innovation Hub have already set up their own working groups. Together the railway sector.
The new funding round is added to another round the company made last year for €7 million. In the process, advised by Garrigues and ArcanoBull, they had investments in Altran, Red Eléctrica and funds such as Goldacre Ventures (UK), Road Ventures (Switzerland), Plug and Play (US) and Spanish Angels Capital, set up by Juan Roig, President of Mercadona , and MBHA.
Valencia, which announced last February that it was working with airline giant Airbus to test its electric propulsion system, has raised a total of 10 million euros since its founding in 2016, relying on public funding obtained. The project has received support from CDTI, Generalitat Valenciana and the European Commission.
Zeleros, who is also developing advanced mobility solutions for port and airport automation, notes that a model of their hyperloop vehicle, Z01, will be on display at the Spanish Pavilion at Expo Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from October of this year through March 2022.
The company calls the Hyperloop system that they are developing the “fifth mode of transportation” and asserts that it is the best alternative for the future to cover long-distance routes efficiently and sustainably to transport passengers and goods. Thus, they explain, it will be possible to travel from Madrid to Paris in just over an hour, for example.
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