Revoy electrifies existing diesel semi trucks with a battery-powered dolly that sits between the tractor and trailer. We were excited to lead the company’s $27 million Series A because Revoy has found a practical way to start moving long-haul freight from diesel to electric now, without waiting for fleets to replace millions of working trucks or for a nationwide charging network to appear.
The dolly is a short trailer containing batteries and a powertrain. It connects through the same fifth-wheel system that already makes tractor-trailers modular, then pushes the truck from behind. A diesel truck becomes a hybrid without modifying or retiring the tractor.
That matters because trucks are long-lived assets. Replacing the existing fleet with purpose-built electric tractors would require enormous capital, while a battery-only truck also needs dependable high-capacity charging everywhere it operates. Revoy lets carriers keep using the trucks they already own and apply electric power only where the company has built supporting infrastructure.
The network can begin with two charging stations on a single freight lane. A truck attaches a charged dolly when it enters the network, uses electric propulsion through the lane, swaps or removes the unit, and continues on diesel outside it. Revoy can add stations one at a time as freight volume grows, avoiding the chicken-and-egg problem that has slowed electric trucking.
The economic opportunity is as important as the emissions benefit. Long-haul trucking touches nearly every physical product Americans buy, but carriers operate on thin margins and cannot depend indefinitely on subsidy stacks. Revoy’s goal is to reach cost parity with diesel first, then undercut it as its vehicles and network improve.
Ian Rust started Revoy in 2020 after spending four years at Cruise, where he designed and built the company’s first autonomous-vehicle prototype. Peter Reinhardt, who co-founded Segment and led it through its acquisition by Twilio, first backed Revoy as an angel investor and later became more deeply involved. Both have already helped build technically ambitious companies at scale.
Three developments brought Revoy to this Series A: regulatory clarity from the Department of Transportation, a go-to-market model built around close partnerships with a small number of carriers, and successful customer demonstrations. In a year-long pilot with Ryder on a Texas–Arkansas route, the team delivered regular loads and materially reduced diesel use, with additional gains coming through software improvements.
Revoy is now focused on a Pacific Northwest network connecting freight markets including Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Boise, and Salt Lake City. The company is building its engineering team alongside operations in the Portland area so hardware engineers can see their work in the field, inspect it after runs, and iterate quickly.
The long-term vision goes beyond a dolly. A dense national station network could support cheaper electric freight, relay-style operations that make driving jobs easier, and eventually autonomous trucking. The infrastructure is slow and difficult to build, which is precisely why starting with a revenue-producing lane-by-lane rollout is so compelling.
We’re thrilled to partner with Ian, Peter, and the Revoy team as they build the electric freight network that powers the United States.