Port terminal operator DP World Group and venture capital firm Caspian Venture Capital co-led a $50m funding round for US-based transport technology developer Virgin Hyperloop One on Monday.
The funding comes ahead of a planned series C round, the company said. Richard Branson, founder of conglomerate Virgin, has been named chairman of the company, which recently rebranded from Hyperloop One following an investment by Virgin in October 2017.
Founded in 2014, Virgin Hyperloop One is working on a vacuum tube transport system based on open-source designs developed by entrepreneur Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX. It completed work on its proof of technology test track in Las Vegas in March 2017.
The technology has successfully reached speeds of 387km per hour on the test track and is aiming for speeds in excess of 1,000km per hour for both cargo and passenger transport. It has raised a total of $295m in financing so far.
The company secured $85m in series B-1 funding in September 2017 at a $700m valuation, raising the cash from GE Ventures, a subsidary of industrial equipment producer General Electric, Caspian VC, OurCrowd, Western Technology Investment (WTI) and Khosla Ventures.
DP World led a $50m round for Hyperloop One in October 2016 that was preceded by $80m in funding from GE Ventures, rail transportation provider SNCF, Caspian, WTI, Khosla, EightVC, Sherpa Ventures, ZhenFund, 137 Ventures and Fast Digital in May the same year.
Rob Lloyd, Virgin Hyperloop One’s CEO, said: “This investment provides Virgin Hyperloop One with a very robust financial platform for 2018 ahead of our series C round of fundraising. We are so proud to have investors who consistently step-up to support our company and our vision.
“We continue to see extremely strong interest from world leaders globally looking to embrace hyperloop to address critical infrastructure challenges. Our focus in 2018 will be on accelerating commercial agreements for both passenger and cargo projects.”
– Photo courtesy of Virgin Hyperloop One.