Charging Infrastructure for Medium-sized Businesses: ChargeX Closes Financing Round of EUR 11.5 Million
- Financing enables the further roll-out of the "Aqueduct" charging system and "Drop Power Sharing" App for groundbreaking electric car charging
- 500 customers with more than 3,500 modules installed are already using ChargeX today
- Expansion of the distribution network to serve companies, commercial landlords, and hotels specifically
Munich, July 5th, 2023 – ChargeX, with its cutting-edge charging solution for electric cars, will revolutionize the charging infrastructure for medium-sized companies. The start-up received 11.5 million euros in a successfully completed Series B financing round. UVC Partners leads the round. Other new investors are BayernKapital with its Growth Fonds Bayern 2, Ponooc, and Verve Ventures. Existing investors Smart Energy Innovations Fond (SEIF) and BonVenture also topped-up their investment.
The Munich-based company plans to meet the growing demand for smart charging solutions in the face of a shortage of skilled workers and bottlenecks in local power grids. The German National Control Center study on the nationwide need for charging infrastructure predicts that by 2030, about 14.8 million e-vehicles and plug-in hybrids will be registered in Germany, resulting in a demand increase between 76 and 88 percent for charge points. This is precisely where ChargeX offers a very elegant and globally unique solution with its modular plug-and-play system as a turnkey solution. Additional charging modules can be connected effortlessly. Thus, the charging infrastructure can be expanded as needed, similarly to a multiple socket. In this way, ChargeX manages to reduce the installation effort and thus also the installation cost by over 50 percent.
Today, more than 500 companies with several thousand charging modules already rely on ChargeX's charging products. Through the growth financing, the company plans to further develop its patented technologies, such as the "Aqueduct" charging system, accelerate its expansion into other European markets and expand its range of digital services. The focus is on optimizing the charging system to enable installation without an installation specialist. They also aim to develop bi-directional charging with local power connections using vehicle batteries.
"We are thrilled that we can now work with an expanded group of investors who share our goals and values. With the new shareholders, we are in a strong position to fulfill our vision and shape the future charging infrastructure," said Tobias Wagner, CEO and co-founder of ChargeX. "We have seen a great demand for our innovative and easy-to-install charging solutions among medium-sized businesses and commercial tenants. At the same time, it is important to keep customer complexity at a minimum and continue developing our products. For example, with our new Fastlane installation service, businesses can get a quote on the total cost of their charging infrastructure in a single day," said Michael Masnitza, COO and co-founder of ChargeX.
"ChargeX solves the biggest problem of the energy transition – too few skilled workers for rapid and widespread expansion. ChargeX's solutions are smart and simultaneously so easy to use that even non-trained users and operators can install them quickly," said Johannes von Borries, Managing Partner of UVC Partners.
"We are excited that ChargeX always puts the user at the center, with offerings like the Power Sharing App. It includes all the administrative functions to manage many Aqueduct charging systems. We are certain that in the coming years, no company will be able to bypass ChargeX to provide employees with a charging option," said Dr. Daniel Reese, Investment Manager at UVC Partners.
About ChargeX
ChargeX GmbH, based in Munich, founded in 2018, develops and produces charging infrastructure solutions and products for electric vehicles. The company has already installed several thousand charging points. The modular solution Aqueduct is the world's only intelligent and patented multiple sockets for electric cars. It enables the charging of many vehicles with just one main connection. Via Plug&Play, the grid-serving system can be expanded to up to 10 charging points, distributing the energy to the vehicles to be charged according to demand. With its charging solution, ChargeX pursues the goal of charging e-cars when they are not needed, at home, and at work. More at: www.chargex.de.
About the investors:
UVC Partners is a leading Munich- and Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in European B2B tech start-ups from pre-seed to series A. With about € 400 million assets under management, UVC Partners typically invests between € 500,000 and € 10 million initially and up to € 30 million per company. The portfolio includes category leaders in deep tech, climate tech, hard- and software, and mobility with various technologies and business models. As an independent partner of UnternehmerTUM, Europe's most extensive innovation and startup center, UVC Partners has access to proprietary deal flow, an industrial network of more than 1,000 corporates, and access to talent from the leading European technical university. The investments include Flix, Vimcar, planqc, Tanso, Isar Aerospace, TWAICE, DeepDrive, STABL, and many more. They all benefit from the team's extensive investment and exit experience, their ability to build sustainable category leaders with a competitive advantage, and their passion for growing the game changers of tomorrow. More: www.uvcpartners.com
Bayern Kapital is the venture/growth capital company of the Free State of Bavaria. It manages specialist investment funds with a volume of around EUR 700 million and supports innovative high-tech companies through their various growth phases with equity capital from EUR 0.25 to 25 million. Since its formation in 1995, the wholly-owned subsidiary of LfA Foerderbank Bayern has invested so far in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups from industries such as life sciences, software & IT, and environmental technology. More: www.bayernkapital.de
Ponooc is a venture capital fund based in the Netherlands with a focus on mobility and sustainable energy in Europe. More: www.ponooc.vc
Verve Ventures is a Swiss venture capital firm that supports innovative startups with high growth potential in the fields of technology, health, and sustainability. More: www.verve.vc
The Smart Energy Innovation Fund is the corporate venture capital fund from Energie 360°. It helps start-ups in the areas of cleantech, energy, smart cities and mobility to rapidly become established on the market and to grow sustainably. Energie 360° is a Zurich-based energy and mobility service provider that makes sustainable energy available throughout Switzerland. It is 96% owned by the city of Zurich. Energie 360° contributes day after day to the implementation of the net-zero goal. More: www.energie360.ch/innovationsfonds
BonVenture was founded in 2003 to use social venture capital to support impact companies that have a social or environmental business purpose and thus deliver a measurable social impact. BonVenture was the first to take up this approach in the German-speaking world and is the first European social fund (EuSEF) in Europe to be registered with BAFIN. More: www.bonventure.de
