The company, which is focused on sustainable transport, raised the amount in a Series B round.

Einride, the Swedish developer and provider of electric and autonomous freight mobility technology, announced Thursday it had raised $110 million Series B funding from existing investors EQT Ventures, Plum Alley Investments, Norrsken VC, Ericsson, and NordicNinja VC; new investors Temasek, Soros Fund Management LLC, Northzone, Maersk Growth and Build Capital also participated in the round. (Crunchbase)

According to Reuters, which quoted Einride Chief Executive Officer Robert Falck, the valuation of the company was approaching $1 billion.

Sustainable transport a megatrend

With the global trucking market expected to reach a size of $5.5 trillion by 2027, and road freight accounting for 7% of global CO2 emissions, there is a huge demand for the development of clean energy-related and sustainable transportation.

Einride operates autonomous, all-electric freight vehicles on commercial routes on public roads. The Einride Pod is an example of cabless, driverless freight mobility – it is already on the market and being operated commercially.

Einride also operates the largest fleet of heavy electric trucks in Europe together with its customers. These include Coca-Cola, Oatly, Lidl, and Electrolux.

In addition, Einride provides the Einride Mobility Platform, a cloud-native transport execution system for autonomous and electric road transport.

The freight market is more attractive to investors looking to back autonomous and electric vehicles in preference to passenger ones. For one, trucks are the bigger polluters. Secondly, the business model and logistics for trucking are far more predictable and stable.

“I think the most important part of that is there is a very clear business case for freight compared to taxi services, robotic taxis, things like that,” Falck told Crunchbase.

“The road freight market is at an inflection point, with consumer demand and regulation pushing shippers to look for sustainable alternatives,” said Jessica Schultz, General Partner at Northzone, in a statement. “Einride has emerged as the category leader, allowing global shippers to shift to electric and autonomous freight options.”

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