Nevomo (known as ''Hyper Poland'' until 2020) is a Polish transportation

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

founded in 2017. The company proposes a

Maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance. Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...

-based transportation system which can be

retrofitted Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to older systems. Retrofits can happen for a number of reasons, for example with big capital expenditures like naval vessels, military equipment or manufacturing plants, businesses or go ...

to existing

railway tracks Railway track ( and UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers (railroad ties in American E ...

, and future work on a

Hyperloop Hyperloop is a proposed high-speed transportation system for both passengers and freight. The concept was published by entrepreneur Elon Musk in a 2013 white paper, where the hyperloop was described as a transportation system using capsules supp ...

system.

History

Nevomo was founded in April 2017 under its original name ''Hyper Poland'' as a spin-off of a team of university students of

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...

. The student team had successfully participated in the Hyperloop Pod Competition II competition organized by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

in California. By the end of 2018, the company had filed eight patent applications. In October 2019, the company unveiled its first 1:5 scale prototype of the track and MagRail vehicle. In 2020, the company begun test runs on a scaled-down track. In the same year, the company rebranded from Hyper Poland to Nevomo. In the first quarter of 2022, Nevomo completed the construction of Europe's longest test track for passive magnetic levitation. The 700 meter-long railway track in

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshal, it is governed by the Subcarpathian Regional As ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

allows vehicles utilizing the company's ''MagRail'' technology to travel at speeds of up to 160 kph. The installation of all necessary wayside equipment was completed in December 2022 and tests began in spring 2023. The first levitation tests were planned for 2023.

Technology

Nevomo is developing a proprietary transport system similar to Maglev, which can be retrofitted onto existing rail infrastructure. The company's core technological focus areas are in the development of a new type of

linear motor A linear motor is an electric motor that has had its stator and rotor (electric), rotor "unrolled", thus, instead of producing a torque (rotation), it produces a linear force along its length. However, linear motors are not necessarily straight. ...

, the levitation and guidance systems, the power electronics and position control systems, as well as monitoring systems. The company anticipates that a railway track will be first upgraded with the company's MagRail technology, which in a later stage is first enclosed to reduce drag, before finally becoming a full-fledged

with a vacuum tube. As the later stages are expected to demand many more years of development before becoming technically and commercially viable, Nevomo is currently focusing on a "MagRail Booster" system intended to magnetically propel existing retrofitted rolling stock, and a full "Levitating MagRail" system which implements Maglev by retrofitting existing train tracks.

Funding

The company has secured a grant of PLN 16.5 million from the National Center for Research and Development (NCBiR) and completed two rounds of equity crowdfunding campaigns on

Seedrs Seedrs Limited is an online equity crowdfunding company, headquartered in East London's Tech City, founded in 2009 and launched by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012. Since 2022 it has been a subsidiary of American crowdfunding company Republi ...

with PLN 3.7 million. In 2020, the Hütter Private Equity fund from

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

, Poland joined the company's investor group. In mid-2022 Nevomo received funding of €2.5 million from the

European Innovation Council The European Innovation Council (EIC) was introduced by the European Commission to support the commercialization of high-risk, high-impact technologies in the European Union. The fully-fledged EIC was launched March 2021 under Horizon Europe and i ...

(EIC) accelerator program, to be expanded with a campaign component of up to €15 million from the EIC fund. In the same year, EIT InnoEnergy - one of the world's largest investors in sustainable energy innovation - also invested in the company.

Notes

{{Reflist

External links

Official Website of Nevomo
Hyperloop Maglev Experimental and prototype high-speed trains