Los Angeles based futuristic tubular transportation startup, Hyperloop, is giving us some big news today. The company which aims to redefine high-speed transportation services by zooming you around the world in supersonic speed, today announced that it has appointed Rob Lloyd, ex-President of Cisco, as its new CEO. It has also brought in another well known figure into its list of advisors: Emily White, former COO of Snapchat and ex-Facebook executive.
Other big names on the board include David O. Sacks, Peter Diamandis, Joe Lonsdale and Jim Messina.
Lloyd had been with Cisco for a long time and was responsible for the company’s worldwide business. He was one of Cisco’s two co-presidents who resigned in June this year. He will now be in charge of leading Hyperloop and forging global relationships and partnerships to build out Hyperloop infrastructure and services. The new CEO likes to compare this new job to the early days of building out the Internet.
This is probably the largest most disruptive compelling vision that I could imagine,
Lloyd said.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to focus building a system and network for the movement of people and things?”
According to company officials, Hyperloop is on the verge of building its first test track by late 2016 / early 2017 in its hometown of LA. This will be one huge accomplishment for the startup which was started just last year. Additionally, the company has announced that its about to raise $80 million in a Series B round of funding.
Until now, the company has raised $11.1 million which might seem modest considering the kind of tech its developing but isn’t so bad after all considering the company’s bigger capital-intensive ambitions. Investors include names like Formation 8, Crispian Venture Capital, Sherpa, and ZhenFund.
BamBrogan, co-founder of Hyperloop, who is moving on to take up the role of CTO, will be leading a very engineering-heavy team (with a total of 50 employees currently) trying to make concepts turn into reality.
2015 was the year Hyperloop went from concept to certainty, and Rob paving the way with the necessary partnerships, capital, and resources ensures that Hyperloop becomes reality. We look forward to 2016 being our Kitty Hawk moment.
Shervin Pishevar, co-founder of Hyperloop, an investor in the company via Sherpa, and co-chair of the board, believes that bringing in a new and experienced person onto the apex of the company is the best way to allow the company to grow.
When I founded this company with Brogan BamBrogan in 2014, we knew that when the time was right we would need a world-class operator to lead it,”
said Pishevar in a statement.
Rob Lloyd is perfectly suited to lead this company given his incredible 20+ year track record of innovating and disrupting. Rob helped build the network that moved bits in the digital era, and now he will help change the world again by building the network that will move people and things faster than ever before possible – we are extremely lucky to have him.
The test track that is scheduled to be ready by late 2016, if a success, will lead to Hyperloop partnering up with governments around the world to build real, functioning Hyperloops. One thing the company is stressing on is that though it’s hometown is LA, it’s not necessary that it may start off the project in large scale there.
There’s a high probability it will be in a different country, although there are some opportunities in the United States,
Lloyd said.
Naturally, we’re going to move as quickly as possible where the right-of-way and regulatory support are with us.
