FERNRIDE, a Munich-based ground autonomy platform, announced the extension of its Series A financing round, raising an additional €18 million – bringing the total funding to €75 million.
The extension is backed by Helantic and joined by dual-use investors, including Thomas Müller, former CEO of Hensoldt and Board Member of Airbus Defense, who also takes a seat on FERNRIDE’s Board. Next to existing shareholders doubling down, several new strategic investors, family offices, and VC firms joined the round, supporting the mission.
“Europe needs sovereignty in critical industries and technologies. Autonomous systems for Container Terminals and Defence are mission-critical for Europe’s future,” said Hendrik Kramer, CEO and Co-founder of FERNRIDE. “Our solution is already operating in essential infrastructure, keeping goods moving at container terminals. With this new investment, we’ll expand our technology platform to serve defence logistics, ensuring safer operations, addressing personnel shortages, and ultimately protecting lives.”
FERNRIDE was founded in 2019 following 10 years of research at TU Munich and currently has over 150 employees. The company offers a ground autonomy platform to deliver scalable automation across industries, spanning from container terminals and yard operations via defence logistics to open-road trucking. The company aims to help critical industries overcome driver shortages and safety risks in the most repetitive, dangerous environments.
The company combines AI-powered autonomy with human oversight and modular, vehicle-agnostic hardware – delivering the first fully certified autonomous trucking system in Europe in 2025.
“We’ve shown that autonomy can solve real-world problems in civilian supply chains. Now we’re stepping up to serve European defence forces with the same mission: protect lives, boost resilience, and put humans back in control, just not always behind the wheel,” added Kramer.
With a track record of transforming civilian logistics for blue-chip customers such as HHLA, Volkswagen, and DB Schenker, FERNRIDE is now applying its technology and expertise to a critical additional domain: defence logistics.
FERNRIDE’s technology is already deployed at critical nodes of Europe’s infrastructure, such as container terminals, supporting the mission of transforming and strengthening the critical industries that our societies rely on.
The company prepares to scale its solution in container terminals, following the first-ever safety certification of an autonomous terminal tractor by TÜV SÜD and the transition to operations without a safety driver.
This latest funding will help expand its autonomous solutions into defence logistics, underlining a clear market pull for dual-use capabilities that enhance both commercial and strategic resilience.
Thomas Müller, who joins the Advisory Board of FERNRIDE, commented: “FERNRIDE’s technology has already proven itself in civilian logistics, and its high potential to protect lives and strengthen Europe’s defence forces is undeniable. This is exactly the kind of Made-in-Germany innovation we need to ensure technological sovereignty.”
With this launch, FERNRIDE aims to enhance mission flexibility, protect lives in high-risk zones, and help defence organisations reallocate skilled personnel from repetitive transport tasks to more strategic roles.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/09/germanys-fernride-bags-additional-e18-million-for-their-series-a-to-develop-autonomous-trucking-system/
