Optimus Technologies closes $17.8 million Series A funding round led by Mitsui & Co.

Photo: Optimus Technologies

Optimus Technologies, a technology company that decarbonizes the largest and most challenging sectors of the transportation industry, announced April 18 a $17.8 million Series A funding round led by Mitsui & Co. out of Tokyo, Japan.

The round included participation from one of North America’s largest commercial fleets, Chevron Renewable Energy Group, and Pittsburgh regional investors including Idea Foundry Inc., Innovation Works, Richard King Mellon Foundation, and Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.

The capital raise will fund the further development and deployment of Optimus’ Vector System, an advanced fuel-system technology that enables heavy-duty diesel engines to operate on 100 percent biodiesel, a biogenic near-zero carbon fuel.

Heavy-duty transportation sectors are extremely challenging and costly to deploy electric or hydrogen solutions, which require total replacement of existing assets, buildout of completely new infrastructure and a fundamental shift in global energy production to renewables.

Conversely, Optimus Technologies’ Vector System seamlessly integrates into existing engines currently in operation or can be built into new engines as they are manufactured, leveraging the foundational diesel engine for the transition to a low-carbon future.

Mitsui and Chevron Renewable Energy Group were joined by other strategic investors in the Series A funding round for Optimus Technologies.

Optimus was founded in 2010 with the mission of combating global climate change by deploying solutions to decarbonize the largest and most challenging transportation and industrial sectors, and it released the Vector System commercially in 2018.

Since then, Optimus has deployed the technology with leading commercial fleets including Archer Daniels Midland Co., and public fleets including Washington, D.C., and the city of Madison, Wisconsin, among numerous others, accumulating millions of miles of successful operation.

“We are thrilled to announce this new partnership with Mitsui and deepen our existing relationship with Chevron Renewable Energy Group,” said Colin Huwyler, founder and CEO of Optimus Technologies. “This strategic investment allows us to accelerate our mission to decarbonize the transportation sector. More importantly, this funding enables Optimus to immediately scale the delivery of carbon reductions at a time when eliminating emissions can’t come soon enough.”

Hirohide Yoshida with Mitsui & Co. added, “Mitsui & Co. will contribute to the development of economies and societies in many countries across the world and to deliver practical solutions to the global challenges we face, such as mitigating and adapting to climate change through our global and wide-ranging business activities. Optimus’ Vector System technology is an innovative and practical solution for reducing carbon emissions in transportation and heavy-duty diesel operations.”

The collaboration between Optimus Technologies and Mitsui will not only accelerate Optimus’ deployments in North America but also allow an expansion into a number of strategic international markets.

Optimus Technologies’ unique approach to reducing carbon emissions is applicable across a wide range of industries from long-haul trucking to maritime and rail.

The Vector System enables customers to reduce their carbon emissions by over 90 percent with a cost-effective solution that leverages existing assets and infrastructure to reduce emissions today.

With this funding, Optimus will dramatically expand its team in Pittsburgh and ramp up production of the Vector System to meet the ever-increasing global decarbonization demands of fleets and governments.