By Lynda Myer
Funding business expansion and practical development and testing of the company construction method, Vinci backs UK start-up hyperTunnel by a financial investment
Thanks to this deal further strengthens of hyperTunnel’s connections with Vinci Construction technical departments will be attained. While hyperTunnel recently joined Vinci’s innovation platform, Leonard, as a member of its start-up accelerator program, Catalyst, this project also won the prestigious annual Construction Start-up Competition in Miami last year, which Leonard co-organizes with other sector names such as Ferrovial and Cemex Ventures.
According to Guillaume Bazouin, head of start-up and entrepreneurs’ programs at Leonard: “hyperTunnel’s technology can be truly game-changing when it comes to improving the safety and sustainability of underground construction projects. It strongly aligns with our goals of rapidly responding to the climate emergency by enabling technological advances that have a substantial environmental impact. hyperTunnel also boasts exceptional leadership and engineering teams, and we are looking to support their great success in the near future.”
“Vinci and Leonard were real experts in construction innovation. To get their backing in such a concrete and substantial way means we must be doing something right. They can see the huge potential of the technologies we’re developing, and they share our passion for improving how the world works. We’re excited to see what we can achieve together over the coming months,” said hyperTunnel co-founder Jeremy Hammond.
hyperTunnel was chosen to receive US$1.96m (€1.88m) under its EIC Accelerator scheme in the previous week by the European Innovation Council (EIC), Europe’s flagship innovation program to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and innovations, while this funding is going to be used in order to complete the extension of hyperTunnel’s advanced swarm robotics underground construction platform.
Last year hyperTunnel was highlighted as the Top 50 Contech Startup and was among 10 winners of the global Construction Startup Competition.
