Canada-based high-speed transportation system developer Transpod has amassed $15m in seed funding from Angelo Investments, a holding group for advanced technology providers in the railway, space and aviation sectors.
Founded in 2015, Transpod is building a hyperloop, a rapid transportation system made up of driverless carriages that can accelerate to the speed of sound as they travel through vacuum tubes.
Using hyperloop technology, passengers and cargo moving between cities can travel at speeds that are 50% faster than airplanes and and 300% faster than trains.
Transpod, which is aiming to launch a commercially viable technology by 2020, will use the money to set up operations in Canada and Italy in the first half of 2017, expand its team of engineers as well as other professionals, and bolster its research and development.
The startup will also seek support from the federal and provincial governments of Canada to build a test track in Ontario, Canada.
Angelo Investments’ portfolio companies – Sitael, a provider of small satellites, Blackshape, a developer of two-seater carbon fibre aircraft, and MERMEC, a railway data analysis software provider – will collaborate with Transpod in the design, testing, and development of its technology.
Transpod presented its hyperloop pod at rail transport technology roadshow Innotrans in September 2016, and is currently working on features such as passenger comfort and technical matters such as tube pressure and route design.
Vito Pertosa, founder of Angelo Investments, said: “Angelo Investments is focused on developing truly innovative industry-leading technologies, so partnering…Transpod was a natural fit.”
– Image of hyperloop train courtesy of TransPod