Emil Tagesson is Co-Founder and CTO of Ailit, which electrifies diesel locomotives with swappable battery packs delivered as energy as a service. He leads the technology behind Superwagon, a battery wagon that powers the electric motors of locomotives railroads already own.

Emil studied at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor's and a master's degree. He worked on the high voltage and battery team for Koenigsegg's Gemera and then as a Powertrain Engineer at Candela, on the P-12, the world's first battery electric hydrofoil ferry.

At KTH Formula Student, Emil led Powertrain and Electronics for a driverless electric race car, and also drove the car in testing and competition. His bachelor's thesis was software for an in-house battery management system, and he is now building with Ailit in Y Combinator's Fall 2026 batch.

Ailit was founded in Stockholm with Christian Lind and is now based in San Francisco. It previously raised VC funding of at least SEK10M from SNÖ Ventures and one of the Norrsken funds, then joined Y Combinator.

Ailit aims to build the world's largest hot-swappable battery platform purpose-built for rail, with packs that can be swapped in minutes. Its goal is to make battery power cheaper than diesel for North American freight, without grid buildout or locomotive rebuilds.