The winner of a recent Hyperloop pod competition held by SpaceX, Delft Hyperloop has raised funding and spun off from Delft University of Technology. Dutch railway operator NS and the UNIIQ investment fund each invested €300K in the new venture to bring sustainable hi-speed travel closer to reality.
Hyperloop pod competition in California
A team of 30 students named just Delft Hyperloop first got wide press after winning a pod competition organised by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the US in January. Twenty-seven teams from across the world came to California, where a 1.25-kilometre-long test Hyperloop track was set up, to determine whose capsule would be the fastest. The winning small-scale pod constructed in Delft travelled at a maximum speed of 93 km/h, while the aim is to reach speeds of more than 1,000 km/h. The new company, Hardt, was founded by four students from the initial team who decided to press forward towards this goal.