Welcoming MACH Transit to the Genesis Portfolio
This year, Genesis and the Energy Institute partnered to launch UT Austin’s Second Annual Smart Energy Call For Innovation (C4i) in collaboration with Affinity Engineering, Chevron, and the Student Engineering Council. Read about our generational partnership:
Venture Partner: Nikhil Guddati
On behalf of the Genesis Program, I am thrilled to announce our recent investment in MACH Transit. MACH Transit is an exciting venture pushing the boundaries of magnetic levitation (maglev) technology, beginning with enabling high-speed filming in motorsports.
The Idea
The highly technical founders of MACH Transit realize that friction is a significant barrier to transportation efficiency. Therefore, taking inspiration from bullet trains, they designed a frictionless, stable, fast, and all-electric transportation medium through magnetic levitation modules. The founders worked on similar technology as leaders in Texas Guadaloop. However, they realized that traditional maglev technology was too expensive and lacked practical use cases.
The team closely follows F1 and shows such as Drive to Survive, and they noticed that the sport was missing key camera angles. In turn, they saw an opportunity to commercialize their maglev technology in the motorsports industry. At MACH Transit, the team hopes to solve these problems through a consolidated maglev module in order to empower high-speed filming in motorsports. Current camera mounts can only travel at speeds of up to ~55 mph, far slower than the maximum speed of an F1 or NASCAR vehicle. The team can seamlessly track high-speed vehicles and provide stable filming for an enhanced viewer experience by mounting a camera on a maglev module. In the future, the company plans to expand its scope to integrate its magnetic levitation technology into additional market use cases, such as public transportation.
The Founders
The MACH Transit team currently includes Jack Phillips (CEO, Mechanical Engineering Major, Class of 2023), Aaditya Ranjit (COO, Mechanical Engineering Major, Class of 2023), Jason Ikonomopoulos (Head of R&D, Mechanical Engineering Major, Class of 2023), Apoorv Agarwal (CTO, Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2023), and Alex Koo (CDO, Electrical and Computing Engineering Major, Class of 2024).
The founders met at UT Austin’s Hyperloop engineering undergraduate research organization, and they are passionate about magnetic levitation technology and its commercialization and integration into key markets. In doing so, they hope to combat carbon emissions and connect people with more efficient transportation.
How’re They Doing?
The founding team is committed to and continuing to work on perfecting the design of a prototype of their Weber Module (the maglev camera mount used for filming). Once their prototype is finished, the team plans to install tracks and test their magnetic levitation module at race tracks across Austin. Once this proof of concept is complete, they will expand to additional racetracks and work with local customers. In turn, they hope to create a differentiated form of filming for an ever-growing ~$5B+ motorsports industry.
Why I Led This Deal by Nikhil Guddati
The MACH Transit founding team and technology are exactly the kind we love to invest in at Genesis. The founding team has demonstrated passion for and deep knowledge about the magnetic levitation industry. Additionally, their technology is on the forefront of innovation in a fast-moving field, and represents an exciting application to a growing industry. The motorsports industry continues to increase in popularity, driven by shows such as Drive to Survive. The addition of multiple F1 races in the United States exemplifies the growing domestic popularity, and MACH Transit aims to use its Weber Module to fundamentally change how motorsports are filmed. However, while there is great potential with this commercial application, motorsports is just the beginning of MACH Transit’s aspirations. The team is excited to advance their technology and apply magnetic levitation to the greater transportation industry. I’m beyond excited to see what the future holds for this team.
