Swedish EV software company Einride has started offering design services to business customers in a move to cut losses, Sifted has learnt.
The Stockholm-based startup, which specialises in self-driving trucks, has raised more than $650m in equity and debt since launching in 2016, but struggled to turn a profit and has faced large losses in recent years.
Cofounder Robert Falck previously described 2024 as “a year of hell” after the company reported $91m (SEK 877m) losses. In May, Falck stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by former CFO Roozbeh Charli.
According to a pitch deck seen by Sifted, Einride’s internal design unit is now offering services such as brand development, concept development, user experience and content production to external clients.
The company underwent two rounds of layoffs in 2023 and 2024. As part of its last restructuring process in the autumn of 2024, the company let go of a large part of its design team.
Some of the designers, however, were kept on to create “a revenue-generating business unit,” a former Einride employee tells Sifted.
In the pitch deck for those services, which Sifted has seen, Einride described it as “a full service design team with experts in product design and creative direction.”
One person who received the pitch said Einride had compared itself to Ferrari, which has become famous for supplying tech to other car makers, such as Cadillac and Maserati.
“I think it is a creative way to make money and not having to get rid of more staff, but it is perhaps also a bit too bullish,” the person said.
One of the companies that has used Einride Design is the company’s backer, EQT Ventures. The Swedish VC owned 14,5% of the votes in Einride at the end of 2024, according to the annual report.
“We, EQT Ventures, have done some work with Einride Design,” says Sofie Grant, operating partner and head of comms at EQT Ventures. “As for our companies, they choose which agencies they hire on their own, which then happens in direct contact between company and agency.”
Einride Design is not mentioned in the annual report of 2024 and Einride’s global head of communications, Hanna Holmquist Jabar, doesn’t give Sifted any more details about the agency, but says that Einride “has an exceptional design team and has spoken to some potential clients for external assignments.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/einride-is-making-its-design-team-into-a-moneymaker/
