Sweden-based Einride bags €475.5M to accelerate deployment of sustainable freight mobility

Stockholm-based Einride, a freight technology company that provides digital, electric, and autonomous shipping, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $500M (approximately €475.5M) in a debt and Series C equity round of funding. 

The round consists of a debt facility of $300M led by Barclays Europe, which will include an initial facility roll-out of $150M starting in January 2023, to ensure long-term funding for Einride’s current and future electric, heavy-duty vehicle fleets.

Gordon Beck, Director of Securitised Products Solutions at Barclays, says, “This landmark debt facility represents a key milestone in the financing of heavy-duty electric vehicles. The innovative asset-backed structure complements Einride’s unique ecosystem offering and is a continued demonstration of how Barclays is using our financial and capital markets expertise to support clients in driving the transition to net-zero.”

In addition, Einride secured $200M in Series C equity funding led by a consortium of new as well as existing investors. Equity investors include Swedish pension fund AMF, EQT Ventures, Northzone, Polar Structure, Norrsken VC, and Temasek. The equity contribution includes a $90M convertible note raised earlier this year.

Capital utilisation

Einride says that the debt funding will help expand its global fleet of electric vehicles. And Series C funding will provide the next step in the investment of new developments and deployments across the company’s autonomous and digital offerings, as well as expanding its offerings to new markets and clients.

Robert Falck, Founder and CEO of Einride, says, “The time is now to act on not only developing but accelerating the implementation of technology that will create a cleaner, safer and more efficient way to move goods. We’ve created the Einride ecosystem to provide the most resilient and future-proof approach to electrifying freight today. With the support from our investors and a shared belief in this mission, we’ll continue to drive disruptive change to global freight at scale.”

Offering sustainable freight mobility

Founded in 2016 by Filip Lilja, Linnea Kornehed and Robert Falck, Einride is a freight technology company providing digital, electric and autonomous shipping. According to the company, Einride’s pod became the world’s first autonomous, all-electric truck to operate a commercial flow for DB Schenker with a permit on the public road in 2019.

The company’s technology and products enable users to execute electrification and automation, order and track shipments, oversee routes and assignments, and visualise data and gain insights. Einride also claims that it has helped reduce customer CO2 emissions by 90 per cent compared to driving with diesel, including embodied emissions.

Besides B2B transportation models, Einride also offers the Einride Mobility platform, a cloud-native transport execution system for autonomous and electric road transport. The platform allows customers to use real-time information and data-driven insights to implement sustainable, cost-efficient, and high-performing transport logistics.

In the last 12 months, the company has announced expansions into several European countries, including Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Norway, as well as deployed operations for various new clients, including Electrolux, GE Appliances, a Haier company, and Bridgestone. 

In October 2022, Einride reported that it completed a pilot on a US public road with its autonomous vehicle, the first company to receive approval to do so for a vehicle without a safety driver on board.