At Slush 2025, more than 13,000 attendees gathered for a standout Climate Summit that signalled a shift toward scalable, science-led climate innovation. As part of TFN’s collaboration with venture-capital firm focused on climate tech, Extantia, Akansha Dimri, TFN’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, sat down for a fireside chat with Tom Hubregtsen, co-founder and CEO of Voltrac.
Voltrac is emerging as a model for climate-tech execution: a mission rooted in sustainability, backed by a commercially robust product: an autonomous electric vehicle built to transform both agriculture and defence. They also raised €7M recently to scale its autonomous electric tractor targeting agricultural labour shortages.
Watch the full conversation below.
Redesigning the tractor
The company’s origins are an example of complementary skills finding common cause. Hubregtsen, with a background in software and machine learning, was at an Antler accelerator in Berlin, where he met Francisco Infante, an expert in heavy-lifting hardware like cargo drones. “We were there for about two months believing that we wouldn’t work together because I was software, he was hardware,” Hubregtsen recalled. The synergy, however, was undeniable. “We hung out every day and advised each other on each other’s business and eventually realised that the physical embodiment of AI, hardware and software, goes really well together.”
The combination of their talents resulted in a vehicle that was built on a principle of simplification. The 3,500kg, 4.5m long machine marks a departure from machines that were increasingly complex. “One of the advantages that our vehicle has over others is that it has 70% fewer components,” Hubregtsen explained. “We’ve completely redesigned it from scratch.”
The benefits include lower manufacturing costs and increased repairability. It also allows Voltrac to rapidly move into profitability, even at a scale of one hundred vehicles per year.
Voltrac’s foundational philosophy saw its first test during trials in Spanish vineyards. “We’ve had scenarios where one of the motors actually completely detached,” Hubregtsen revealed. “But in all of the cases, on the spot, we can disable that one unit, and we’re left with 75% of the actual propulsion.” The resilience separates Voltrac’s solution from traditional tractors that might be out of action for days, awaiting a dedicated engineer. “We’ve always been able to drive out of the fields on our own account,” Hubregtsen added.
This resilience aids a wider goal of European sovereignty, says Hubregtsen, “the way that we’re now looking at it, Voltrac is sovereignty for both the food supply and borders.”
Starting in vineyards, moving towards the battlefield
While most people think of tractors only on farms, Voltrac’s vehicle also has military applications. Modern warfare depends on its supply chain, with a constant need for matériel moving towards front lines. This creates its own risks, in Ukraine, for example, around half the casualties come from those movements. Using autonomous vehicles like Voltrac becomes an obvious step to reduce those risks.
However, Hubregtsen’s focus is away from the frontlines. “We are currently actively trying to sell to agriculture,” Hubregtsen said. “These people are nearby our facilities in Valencia… we can drive out, and we can quickly go and fix it, either the same day or the next day.” This proximity accelerates development, allowing for rapid iterations and giving Voltrac a competitive advantage over those who may be stuck in prototyping with longer turnarounds.
Hubregtsen anticipates that defence will become a larger part of the business. “We’re focusing 80% of our time on agriculture and optimistically looking into defence,” he said. “Over time, there will be more of a balance between the two, where we’re striking a balance between addressing the problems in agriculture, but also for NATO countries.”
Where the real harvest lies: data
Voltrac hopes their autonomous vehicle will also deliver their long-term vision: a transformation of farm management.
Each vehicle contains an array of sensors and AI-ready GPUs. In addition to driving, these will also be used to analyse crops, moving agricultural management from annual reviews to daily plant-level monitoring. “We estimate triple the margins of the farmers once properly implemented,” Hubregtsen said. “We look every single day, on every drive of every one of our vehicles on the fields, what the health of the individual plants are. And we feed back this into a reinforcement learning algorithm.”
The data-driven approach supports a precision application of fertilisers and chemicals, helping to boost yields and reduce both costs and environmental impact.
Hubregtsen also wants others to benefit from their platform. “I would love it if any of the founders would be interested in collaborating with us on the platform,” he said. “I think together, we’re a lot stronger, and the farmers definitely need it.” The invitation could help Voltrac have an impact far beyond agriculture, with data helping inform other industries — both up- and downstream of the farm, making the whole process, from farm to fork, as efficient as possible.
Whether it’s the practical issues of broken motors in the middle of the field or a grand vision of a collaborative agricultural data platform, Voltrac’s journey is about problem-solving.
But while the mission will see benefits for farmers, consumers, and the whole economy agriculture supports, Hubregtsen and his team are clear about the need to build a profitable business, and while he’s aiming at profitability with even a small production of 100 vehicles, he told the audience his ambitions are much bigger: “we’re here to build a proper decacorn.”
