Hyperloop One Gets a New Name and Another Elite Investor

TopSpeed

By Robert Moore

Published Oct 17, 2017

This could be a really good thing

If you didn’t think Hyperloop One had a serious chance of doing something amazing for the transportation world, well you better think again, as it just got a new vote confidence and a new investor. That investor is none other than Virgin Group founder, Richard Branson, another billionaire industrialist that resides somewhere in the same level of playership as Elon Musk. With this investment, Branson not only gives his seal of approval and confidence for the company but also finds himself sitting as a member of the board of directors and even brought about a name change too: Virgin Hyperloop One.

Now, there’s no word as to how much Branson has actually invested, but you know It’s a pretty significant amount of cheddar if the company is being rebranded to include “Virgin” in the name. And, whether or not the company even needed the investment remains to be seen, considering the fact that it has recently announced receiving $85 million in financing, which brings its grand total up to $245 million. Its total valuation is approaching 10-figure numbers at this point, but it should be pointed out that somehow this company has managed to suck up truckloads of cash without any type of product, revenue stream, proof of safety, or even government approval. So, let’s just say that there are a lot of people out there hoping that “Virgin HyperLoop One” is as successful as it’s been played up to eventually be.

Keep reading to learn a little more about Virgin Hyperloop One

The Story Behind Hyperloop One

It’s pretty easy to assume that Elon Musk is the man with the power behind the Hyperloop One name, but that really couldn’t be further from the truth. The idea was first thrown around by Musk, who put together the idea of zooming from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes. But, because SpaceX and Tesla was already such a plateful for the elite billionaire, he offered up the idea as open-source, ultimately allowing any company in the world to have a go at it. Well, Hyperloop One was later founded by Shervin Pishevar, but it didn’t take long for Elon to found The Boring Company, which is now set to build a hyperloop between New York and Washington DC. Well, to be clear, Musk has received verbal approval, but no official approval. On the other hand, he has received the Okay to start tunneling out the meat of the Earth under Los Angeles, so that may see the first hyperloop tunnel built by Musk – we’ll just have to wait and see.

It really is an odd turn of events considering Musk was kind of expected to make a large investment into whatever company made significant progress in Hyperloop technology, yet here he is himself digging tunnels and putting in work. Meanwhile, the official company is sucking in money like it’s going out of style and now has the backing of Virgin Group’s Richard Branson and his words of advice to work with too. Despite the fact that the whole Hyperloop thing is still half theory and has no regulatory approval, it has come a long way: