Luca Banderet is Co-Founder and Advisor at Ailit, a startup electrifying American freight rail with swappable battery systems for heavy-haul locomotives.

Luca is a Swiss-Swedish entrepreneur and investor who studied at the Stockholm School of Economics and started his career co-founding the Swedish fintech NOWO, which listed in 2021. He later worked as Venture Lead at EQT Ventures and co-founded the angel network DHS Venture Partners.

Luca co-founded J12 Ventures and led it as Managing Partner until 2025, growing it into a multi-fund seed VC brand focused on data and AI. He is also a largely retired professional saxophonist and speaks six languages fluently.

Ailit was founded in 2025 and operates between San Francisco and Stockholm. It raised at least SEK 10M from SNÖ Ventures and Norrsken, then joined Y Combinator's fall 2026 batch with $500K.

Ailit is building a platform that electrifies existing diesel locomotives with batteries that can be swapped and charged off-board. This targets North American freight rail, which moves about 30% of the continent's freight ton-miles on diesel power.