On Thursday, St. Louis autonomous freight rail developer Intramotev announced that it has received an investment from Idealab X, an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on energy, AI, mobility, and advanced manufacturing startups. While the exact size of the investment was not made public, Intramotev said the new funds will be used to accelerate the development of its commercial prototype and proprietary autonomous rail software. Intramotev has developed these technologies with a view to disrupting and decarbonizing traditional rail–which moves $690 billion in goods each year in the U.S. alone–and pursuing broader application to mining, ports, and intermodal freight movement.
Idealab Studio board of directors Allen Morgan will join Intramotev’s board. Casey Cathcart, founder and CEO of Cathcart Rail, a leading freight rail services and transportation company in which Star America Infrastructure Partners is an investor, has joined Intramotev as a strategic advisor.
“Intramotev is passionate about developing technologies that will transform freight movement. Every day, up to 900,000 of the 1,600,000 active railcars in the US don’t move at all, and loaded railcars sit on average for 24.6 hours on each leg of their journey waiting for diesel locomotives. We envision a future in which freight can move itself without waiting for a locomotive, making the system more efficient and environmentally friendly. The current supply chain crisis further demonstrates the need for technologies which can increase capacities of the existing freight infrastructure,” said Intramotev CEO Tim Luchini. “Partnering with Idealab X gives us substantial resources to bring our groundbreaking new solutions to life, as well as lean on the playbook and legacy of Idealab X, whose mission is to fund companies that are solving important problems in the world.”
“Cathcart Rail is excited to support Intramotev’s prototype building and testing,” said new advisor Casey Cathcart. “The technology is a revolutionary approach to streamlining in-plant and captive service rail operations, and quite possibly the broader rail network in the future. Fundamentally, it aligns with, and should improve, precision scheduled railroading (PSR) methodologies of timed dispatching and delivery reliability. And I’m personally honored to be assisting the team with their development and vision for the next generation of rail operations and safety.”
“It’s an honor to have incubated Intramotev at Idealab NY, Inc. and to have the opportunity to further partner with Intramotev and Idelab X in lessening the 37 million metric tons of greenhouse gases that locomotives emit into our atmosphere every year,” said Jonathan Cohen, Co-Founder of Idealab NY and Idealab X. “Intramotev is a nice fit with the other Clean Tech companies in our IdealabX portfolio — Energy Vault, Heliogen, Flowing Energy and Carbon Capture — who are all doing their part to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere,” said Allen Morgan, Co-Founder of Idealab NY and IdealabX.
