The market for electric vehicles is growing rapidly. Automakers face the challenge of providing high-performance drives without incurring high costs or new production lines. Munich-based deep-tech startup Hyperdrives has developed a solution that makes electric motors more efficient and scalable.
Funding for technology industrialization
In the oversubscribed pre-seed financing round, Rethink Ventures, First Momentum Ventures, SDAC, Acequia Capital, 2100 Ventures, Prototype Capital, and several angel investors participated. Together they provide Hyperdrives with 3 million euros. With the capital, Hyperdrives wants to secure the durability of its technology, accelerate market entry, and expand production capacity.
Hyperdrives’ core innovation is so-called hollow conductor cooling: a dielectric coolant is fed directly into the copper windings of the motor. This allows the continuous current density to be increased threefold compared to conventional motors.
“Our breakthrough is making hollow conductor cooling usable for mass production. By cooling directly in the copper conductor, we achieve up to three times higher current density than today’s motors: more power in the same space or the same power in a smaller, lighter housing”,
explains co-founder Michael Numberger.
Motorsport expertise for the mass market
Hyperdrives was founded in 2021 by Michael Numberger, Benjamin Hengstler, and Robin Renz. In-house, the startup has developed three product generations to date and tested them under demanding conditions. In 2024, the Munich startup achieved revenue of over one million euros according to its own information, without external financing.
The product portfolio includes, among other things, the Hyperdrives One automotive drive unit with SiC inverter and a high-performance drive unit for electric aircraft. Applications in shipping are also conceivable.
Matthias Schanze, general partner at Rethink Ventures, is enthusiastic:
“Hyperdrives solves one of the biggest challenges in electric mobility: combining record performance with true scalability. Their hollow conductor platform is the first I’ve come across that combines motorsport-level performance with automotive-level manufacturability and costs. That’s why we’re excited to support the Hyperdrives team and lead this oversubscribed financing round.”
With the financing, Hyperdrives plans comprehensive durability testing according to automotive standards as well as expansion of commercial projects with OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers. The goal is to make the technology usable on an industrial scale through licensing agreements.
