EasyMile, which specialises in the design of autonomous shuttles and utility vehicles, has announced that it has raised €55 million in funding from Searchlight. The objective for the Toulouse-based company is to develop its autonomous solutions into concrete commercial offers. It also wants to export its brand internationally.

A 55 million euro fundraising

Last week, EasyMile announced that it had raised nearly 55 million euros thanks to the investment firm Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P., with McWin and NextStage AM. Several historical investors also contributed to the transaction: Bpifrance, Continental and Alstom.

EasyMile founder and CEO Gilbert Gagnaire said the company would use the funds to continue its development:

“We have established partnerships with leaders in niche markets that are now affordable. […] We are very pleased to welcome Searchlight, McWin and NextStage and look forward to accelerating our growth with their expertise.”

For EasyMile’s CEO, Benoit Perrin, this is a final step in the company’s strategic development and elaboration of new technologies that can be ready for commercialization:

“This fundraising validates EasyMile’s strategy. It will allow us to finalize our technical development and fund our commercialization strategy. We will bring the technology to an industrial level and provide a real commercial service.

A company with several projects

Ralf Ackermann, partner at Searchlight Capital, also spoke of the investment fund’s involvement in helping the Toulouse-based company with its development and commercialisation strategy:

“We are delighted to invest in EasyMile at this crucial stage of the company’s development. Having observed its robust, quality-driven approach and cutting-edge technology, we are confident that the company is well placed to evolve commercially and we are delighted to be part of this journey.”

In early 2021, the Toulouse-based SME also took the lead in the European AWARD (All Weather Autonomous Real logistics operations and Demonstrations) programme, focused on heavy-duty vehicles. Within this framework, it is coordinating a working group made up of 29 partners specialising in the world of commercial vehicles and heavy goods vehicles, which aims to support the autonomisation of heavy vehicles dedicated to logistics, in the context of complicated weather conditions.

Between 2019 and 2021, the company has doubled its workforce. The arrival of this fundraising will allow the recruitment of new employees. The brand has opened 15 positions in the areas of R&D, robotics and mechatronics engineering.

EasyMile, the company specialized in the design of autonomous shuttles

Founded in 2014, EasyMile is a company that specializes in material handling, passenger transport and autonomous systems. One of its designs is the TractEasy tractor: fully electric and driverless, it allows autonomous material handling in indoor and outdoor logistics processes, as well as in airports.

Another of the brand’s designs, EasyMile EZ 10 is an autonomous electric public transport vehicle that can carry up to 10 people deployed in 2018, in around 30 cities in 16 different countries. At the same time, the company is working on the development of other autonomous vehicle systems.

Since its creation, EasyMile has already deployed autonomous vehicles in more than 300 sites, in more than 30 countries, over 800,000 km. Most of its solutions are fully autonomous level 4 systems.

Translated from Véhicule autonome : EasyMile lève 55 millions d’euros auprès de Searchlight