Intramotev, a St. Louis-based startup developing what it describes as an autonomous, zero-emissions railcar, has been accepted into the accelerator program of chipmaking giant Intel Corp.
Intramotev is one of 10 U.S. companies selected for the fall 2023 iteration of Intel Ignite, a 12-week startup accelerator program of Santa Clara, California-based Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). It’s a program that Intramotev CEO Timothy Luchini said will help the startup bolster the development and deployment of its railcar technology.
Intel Ignite’s fall 2023 program includes startups from across the U.S. with a focus on “early-stage deep tech startups.” The cohort includes companies focused on health care, artificial intelligence, energy, analytics and manufacturing technology. The 10 companies were chosen from 300-plus applicants and have raised an average of $6.8 million in seed funding, the accelerator program said.
Founded in 2020, Intramotev has developed what it describes as an autonomous, zero-emissions railcar, called the TugVolt, that it says can operate without the use of a locomotive, speeding up the process of delivering goods. In addition to its TugVolt railcar, Intramotev is developing other rail-focused autonomous products, including a regenerative energy braking system for traditional trains, called ReVolt, and automated gates and hatches.
Luchini said Intel Ignite came on the startup’s radar after the accelerator program contacted the St. Louis startup to gauge its interest in submitting an application. Intramotev at the time wasn’t actively seeking to participate in an accelerator program, but Luchini said the chance to forge connections with Intel led the startup to apply.
“This one caught my eye in particular because of Intel and because of their background and because of what we’re trying to do at the time,” he said.
Intel, with 2022 revenue of $63 billion, is a designer and manufacturer of semiconductors. Its product portfolio includes computing processors, servers, wireless products, software and network communications technologies.
The Intel Ignite program is based in Boston and provides its participating startups with access to resources from Intel, including mentorship, industry experts and business development coaches. It doesn’t include a financial investment in the selected companies. Luchini said the program will help strengthen Intramotev’s operations around the computing capabilities needed to operate its rail car systems by tapping into Intel’s expertise in computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“When we want to organize one railcar, the human brain can do that. When we start to organize thousands of these cars on a network, that’s really where the resources of an Intel become really, really valuable to us,” Luchini said.
Intramotev’s participation in Intel Ignite comes as it begins to deploy its technology, starting with a focus on having customers first use its railcars on confined routes located at industrial facilities, including mining sites, manufacturing plants and ports. It announced in May that an undisclosed mining facility located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would use its railcars, and in June said that Iron Senergy will have three ReVolt railcars on a 17-mile private railroad to transport coal in Western Pennsylvania. Intramotev expects to deploy its railcars at Iron Senergy is December and at the Michigan mining site in spring 2024.
Intramotev operates at its headquarters at 4350 Semple Ave. in North City, with its facility including private railroad tracks that can be used to test its railcars. The startup has been backed by several investors, including IdeaLabX, IdeaLab NY and Cantos. Locally, Intramotev has been supported by nonprofit Arch Grants, which awarded it a $50,000 grant in 2021.
