The enterprise of transferring items in the USA is dominated by vehicles, which deal with about two-thirds of the 20.2 billion tons of freight that’s transported yearly. Parallel Programs founder and CEO, Matt Soule, desires 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 expertise 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 vehicles — for short-distance deliveries.
Rail has been historically underutilized as a result of trains are usually powered by giant and costly locomotives that pull a whole lot of freight automobiles at a time over lengthy distances, Soule defined to TechCrunch. Companies typically flip to vehicles for transferring freight shorter distances.
Parallel Programs developed a system that permits 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 should 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 distinct bodily structure to perform truck aggressive economics at small scale relatively than massive scale,” Soule stated. “The car itself is appropriate with present rail infrastructure. It’s designed and being demonstrated to function alongside conventional rail operations. We’re not proposing to interchange present freight trains with this.”
Parallel not too long ago was accepted by the Federal Railroad 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 not too long ago raised a $38 million Sequence B spherical led by Anthos Capital with participation from Collaborative Fund, Congruent Ventures, and Riot Ventures, amongst others. This brings Parallel’s whole funding to greater than $100 million. The recent capital will likely be put towards commercialization with the corporate hoping to host its preliminary industrial launch in 2026.
Sophie Bakalar, a associate at Collaborative Fund, informed 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 usually make investments on this space, transport and the motion of products does have a huge impact on the patron firms Collab is normally backing, stated Bakalar, including that it’s laborious to cross up a great alternative — even whether it is off-thesis.
“I feel this staff is de facto uniquely positioned to unravel this downside,” Bakalar stated. “Simply not many people are going to have the ability to do it. I feel it’s a staff that has a founder-product match. It’s a huge market and an enormous problem.”
Soule doesn’t have a background in rail, particularly. Nonetheless, 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 consistently creating new applied sciences,” Soule stated. “I labored in avionics, which is electronics and software program that controls the rocket and bought extremely inquisitive about how all these applied sciences may gain advantage different varieties of industries which have perhaps not seen as a lot innovation.”
He launched the corporate in 2020 and now, 5 years later, Parallel has constructed out the expertise and is targeted on commercialization.
Whereas getting firms to vary their transport and distribution methods may very well be a big feat, demand for various options is there, Soule stated. He added 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 may fire up extra demand for firms like Parallel as firms will probably be trying to minimize prices in any approach.
“This is sort of a generational innovation by way of freight and also you don’t see quite a lot of change within the freight business,” Soule stated. “However that is hitting on factors that matter.”
