© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An Einride Pod, an electrical self-driving truck developed by Einride, which has no cabin for a driver, is proven on this undated handout photograph obtained by Reuters on November 3, 2021. Einride/Handout by way of REUTERS
By Marie Mannes
(Reuters) – Swedish electrical self-driving truck start-up Einride mentioned on Wednesday it had agreed to boost capital of $500 million from debt, fairness and the conversion of earlier loans, dashing up the corporate’s capacity to pursue new markets and clients.
A $300 million debt facility was signed with Barclays (LON:) Europe, whereas $200 million in fairness got here from new and present buyers, together with EQT (NYSE:) and Northzone, Einride mentioned in an announcement.
Some $90 million of the fairness got here within the type of earlier money owed being transformed to shares. Einride declined to say how a lot the corporate was valued at following the most recent share difficulty.
Some fast-growing tech corporations have struggled to boost funds this 12 months whereas others, similar to Swedish funds agency Klarna Financial institution, have attracted buyers by giving deep reductions in comparison with earlier valuations.
“The time is now to behave on not solely creating however accelerating the implementation of know-how that may create a cleaner, safer and extra environment friendly technique to transfer items,” mentioned Einride’s founder and Chief Govt Robert Falck.
The corporate’s enterprise relies on self-driving know-how for freight vehicles, which has attracted investor consideration in recent times as it’s deemed to be cheaper in addition to simpler to roll out in comparison with self-driving automobiles.
Self-driving freight companies require much less mapping than different know-how as they run on mounted routes between predefined factors, totally on main highways with out intersections or pedestrians.
