Parallel Systems Raises $100M Series C for Autonomous Freight Rail

Parallel Systems, started in 2020 by former SpaceX avionics engineers, has raised $100 million in a Series C led by AVP, TechCrunch reports. The round pushes total funding past $200 million. Hillspire, Agility Global, Cobalt Capital, Anthos Capital, Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures and Collaborative Fund joined.

The product is the Panther: a battery-electric autonomous rail vehicle that hauls several tons of freight up to 500 miles without an operator, alone or in short platoons. The vehicles have no couplers. They separate from each other inside train yards without human help.

The pitch is a mileage range the railroads already lost. "Less than 500 miles is hard for railroads to do competitively," co-founder and CEO Matt Soule said, framing Panther as a way for rail to "take some of that trucking." About 60% of U.S. freight trips fall under that 500-mile line, now mostly moved by trucks.

Parallel got Federal Railroad Administration approval roughly 18 months ago and has been running tests on 160 miles of track near the Port of Savannah, Georgia. Soule said the "first commercial payload coming up very soon." The TechCrunch piece names no shipper and no date for that payload.