CargoBeamer has secured €140m in Series B funding from public and private investors to expand semi-trailer handling terminals in Germany and Italy.
CargoBeamer has announced commitments totalling €140m from public and private investors as part of its current Series B financing round. The funds will be used to expand its terminals for handling all types of semi-trailers in Kaldenkirchen (Germany) and Domodossola (Italy) near Milan.
The public sector investors include the German Federal Railway Authority (part of the Ministry of Transport) and the Swiss Federal Office of Transport.
The Swiss portion of around €40m will benefit the CargoBeamer terminal in Domodossola, providing capacity for 185,000 craneable and non-craneable truck consignments to be shifted from road to rail every year. At the site in Kaldenkirchen, the final preparations for starting construction are now taking place.
The €50m from private investors was led by the family office of the Albrecht family (Nordwind Ventures). “With exceptional vision and great confidence, our lead investors have not only supported us financially but also laid the foundation for our success. Their commitment is the key to our future, and we are deeply grateful for their support,” says Dr. Markus Fischer, CFO of CargoBeamer. The current round of financing is still open to other investors as well.
“The fact that public funds are now flowing into CargoBeamer on a large scale is ample proof of the importance of our technology – and yet another strong argument in the ongoing fundraising process,” said Nicolas Albrecht, CEO of CargoBeamer. “CargoBeamer is one of the most important innovations in European freight transport in recent decades and is making a significant contribution to the economically and politically desired shift of traffic from road to rail.”
Despite strong growth, CargoBeamer is already operating profitably in its core business and, along with its sites in Kaldenkirchen and Domodossola, has its first fully automated horizontal transfer terminal in Calais. Together with its partners, additional locations in Perpignan (France), Ashford (Great Britain), and Bari (Italy) are also part of the current network.
Over the next ten years, says the company, a total of 18 terminals and up to 50 routes are to be built across Europe. The automated terminal in Calais can load/unload a trainload of 38 semi-trailers (60 TEU) in just 20 minutes, much faster than traditional lo-lo terminals.
The transfer platform can also be used as a lifting basket for non-craneable trailers in lo-lo terminals, which to date is the nature of the Kaldenkirchen and Domodossola facilities and the third-party terminals in Perpignan and Bari. In Ashford, trailers are driven off Eurotunnel freight shuttles by short-haul road trucks operating between the CargoBeamer and Eurotunnel Calais terminals.
Dr. Hans Albrecht, as representative of the Albrecht family who provided investment funds, explains: “The transition in freight transport from road to rail is dependent on innovative solutions that save significant costs and energy, such as CargoBeamer. The move towards significant CO2 reduction in the transport sector initiated by numerous European countries offers CargoBeamer enormous economic potential. In freight transport, CargoBeamer has clearly established itself as the most scalable solution, and its growth must now be accelerated.”
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