The enterprise of transferring items in the US is dominated by vans, which handles about two-thirds of the 20.2 billion tons of freight that’s transported yearly. Parallel Systems founder and CEO Matt Soule needs to vary that by placing a contemporary autonomous and electrical twist on the centuries-old railroad system.
The Los Angeles-based firm is constructing battery-powered autonomous freight know-how that works with present freight automobiles and integrates with present practice management software program. Soule’s pitch: Parallel’s system makes it inexpensive for firms to make use of rail — not vans — for short-distance deliveries.
Rail has been historically underutilized as a result of trains are usually powered by giant and costly locomotives that pull lots of of freight automobiles at a time over lengthy distances, Soule defined to TechCrunch. Companies typically flip to vans for transferring freight shorter distances.
Parallel Programs developed a system that enables practice automobiles to connect and detach autonomously. This implies firms can use Parallel’s tech for quite a lot of completely different supply sizes and people don’t need to manually join and disconnect the automobiles — a harmful course of. Parallel’s tech additionally permits freight automobiles to brake considerably faster than present trains, Soule added.
“We’re utilizing a unique bodily structure to perform truck aggressive economics at small scale somewhat than huge scale,” Soule mentioned. “The car itself is suitable with present rail infrastructure. It’s designed and being demonstrated to function alongside conventional rail operations. We’re not proposing to switch present freight trains with this.”
Parallel just lately was authorized by the Federal Railway Administration to begin piloting the tech in Georgia. This program will enable the corporate to check its tech-enabled trains alongside a 160-mile stretch between the Port of Savannah in Savannah, Georgia and a number of distribution websites within the state.
Parallel additionally just lately raised a $38 million Collection B spherical co-led by Anthos Capital and Collaborative Fund with participation from Congruent Ventures and Riot Ventures, amongst others. This brings Parallel’s whole funding to greater than $100 million. The contemporary capital might be put towards commercialization with the corporate hoping to host its preliminary industrial launch in 2026.
Sophie Bakalar, a accomplice at Collaborative Fund, instructed TechCrunch that whereas Parallel doesn’t neatly match into its consumer-leaning generalist thesis, the agency was intrigued by the corporate after getting launched by an present founder of their portfolio.
Whereas Collaborative Fund doesn’t make investments on this space usually, transport and the motion of products does have a big effect on the patron firms Collab is often backing, mentioned Bakalar, including that it’s onerous to go up a superb alternative — even whether it is off-thesis.
“I feel this crew is actually uniquely-positioned to unravel this drawback,” Bakalar mentioned. “Simply not many people are going to have the ability to do it. I feel it’s a crew that has a founder-product match. It’s a large market and a large problem.”
Soule doesn’t have a background in rail, particularly. Nevertheless, he does have a historical past of working in regulated transportation. He spent 20 years in aerospace, 13 of which have been at SpaceX.
“We have been always creating new applied sciences,” Soule mentioned. “I labored in avionics, which is electronics and software program that controls the rocket and received extremely interested in how all these applied sciences may benefit different kinds of industries which have possibly not seen as a lot innovation.”
He launched the corporate in 2020 and now, 5 years later, Parallel has constructed out the know-how and is targeted on commercialization.
Whereas getting firms to vary their transport and distribution methods could possibly be a big feat, demand for various options is there, Soule mentioned. He added that that they’ve had curiosity from throughout the globe however plan to deal with the U.S. and Australia for now.
This information additionally comes because the U.S. hangs in tariff limbo. If tariffs do find yourself going by, Bakalar predicts it might fire up extra demand for firms like Parallel as firms will doubtless be trying to minimize prices in any method.
“This is sort of a generational innovation by way of freight and also you don’t see a number of change within the freight trade,” Soule mentioned. “However that is hitting on factors that matter.”