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Happy Tuesday, This is Electric Avenue. We’re the only e-Mobility newsletter that has a buttery, flakey crust - just like the croissant pastries that our friends in France love so much 🥐🇫🇷

Here’s what we have for you today:

• EV Startup Funding News 📈

• E-Mobility Startup Interview: Electra's Blueprint for Urban Fast Charging 🇫🇷🚀

• 3 Links 🔗

• Opportunity 🗝️

• Meme of the week 🤡

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Let's dive in!

EV Startup Funding News 📈

Guess what day it is? It's our monthly Money Monday 🤑  - This month we saw some big EV startup / corporate exits. Here's who secured the bag 💰 and which startups you should keep an eye on 👀:

• Spirii has been acquired by the French company Edenred, aiming to accelerate its growth in Europe and expand into Latin America and the USA. Edenred offers specific-purpose payment solutions for food, engagement (gift cards), mobility (fleet card), and corporate payments (virtual cards).

• Webasto sells its EV charging business line for €250m to the private-equity company Transom Capital Group. Webasto remains a minority shareholder.

• ev.energy has been awarded $41m by the California Energy Commission for the REDWDS grant to deploy affordable EV charging across California through the ChargeWise program. This funding aims to enroll 275k new EV drivers to create an EV virtual power plant.

• Powerdot, a Lisbon-based CPO, has secured €100m in fresh funding from existing investors to expand its network by 15k charge points.

• French utility giant EDF is forming a €450m “joint financing platform” to build and deploy nearly 8,000 ultra-fast charging points across France by 2030. EDF’s 100% subsidiary IZIVIA will serve as the operator of the charging stations.

Do you know any E-mobility companies that raised recently? -> Send us a link to [email protected]!

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E-Mobility Startup Interview:

Electra 🇫🇷🚀

🥳 Today, we are delighted to feature our 2nd E-Mobility Startup Interview (find the 1st one here). What to expect? 🎯 

• Hand-selected startups in the e-mobility and EV charging industry ⚡️

• 1st hand insights and their story 🤓

• Cool products and tech 💡 

Electra, a Paris-based startup recently closed its seed funding round. A lot of the team, including co-founder Julien, are readers of Electric Avenue. We sat down with the team and asked them to break down their journey, from the initial opportunity discovery to becoming a major fast-charging network with cross-European expansion plans. 🙂 

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

We are a fully integrated Charge Point Operator, an independent pure player offering the best and simplest fast charging (150-400 kW) experience, focused in urban areas. We secure locations, roll out and operate the stations. We have our own tech stack (backend, app, etc.). We like to say we are an “infra-tech” scale-up, combining the best of infrastructure and software capabilities.

Electra’s network is growing very fast and counts today ~200 live stations (~1,200 charge points) across Europe.

We are 200 people and still growing, with teams located in 8 countries: France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Spain. The HQ office is in Paris.

Electra’s ambition is to build 2.200 stations (~15,000 charge points) across Europe.

Electra was founded in early 2021 and raised around 600 million € equity through venture capital and infrastructure funds.

We, Aurélien De Meaux, 37 years old, entrepreneur (had co-founded Cheerz before Electra), and Julien Belliato, 39 years old and with a strong energy and infrastructure background, co-founded the company (also with Augustin Derville, who left last summer to create a new start-up).

What's your backstory and how did you develop the idea?

The idea came up in the summer of 2020. Aurelien & Julien were already passionate about energy transition and electric mobility. And at the time, the public EV charging market was structured around 2 main verticals: AC charging in cities and DC fast charging on highways.

But what about DC fast charging in urban areas? Many needs would be addressed :

-   B2C: individuals who don’t have a home charging option (that is a very large proportion of drivers in large dense cities!)

-   B2B: taxis, VTC (private hire/black car); last-mile delivery, corporate fleet… converting soon to electric and need a dense fast-charging service in urban areas

There is a strong alignment between the urban positioning and the strong added value of a well-developed product culture and tech capabilities, as a wide variety of use cases need to be addressed. For example, Electra invented a charge point booking feature (through the Electra app and well-integrated at the physical charging site): very useful for taxis planning their trips for example, and other features described in the next answer.

We decided to create Electra to become the reference fast charge player in urban and peri-urban areas in Europe.

Take us through the process of building and launching the first version of your product.

Electra began with a vision to redefine the EV charging experience, and we literally started from a blank page in 2021. This approach allowed us to focus deeply on user needs, free from the limitations of existing market solutions. Through extensive research and direct user feedback, we crafted a product that stands out for its user-centric design, setting new benchmarks in the charging industry.

Our journey was powered by our commitment to master the key pieces of the job.

Our dedication to developing our technology in-house and maintaining operational excellence allows us to not just meet but surpass the needs of EV owners. It's this strategic integration of tech and infrastructure, driven by our specialized teams, that marks the Electra advantage, firmly placing us as frontrunners in the charging market.

Electra’s product is based on 3 main pillars:

• Urban Placement: Our charging stations are thoughtfully located in urban areas, simplifying access for EV owners.

• Fast Charging: Electra slashes charging times, placing a premium on efficiency and user convenience.

• Customer Experience: Focused on making EV charging smooth and enjoyable, our station design, our intuitive app and superior reliability elevate the entire process.

Here are a few specificities that our customers love:

• A great station experience, with multiple services on site, such as coffee or access to toilets

• A super seamless charging experience, with Autocharge

• An easy access to gated areas (eg. parking lots), with Station Access

• No bad surprises anymore, with Book’n Charge

• A comprehensive offer for B2B customers, especially ride-hailing and logistics, with specific pricing and software functionalities (making it simple for example to track costs on a dedicated platform, etc.)

Did you ever have an “oh shit” moment where you thought it wouldn’t work?

Capital Requirements: Building fast charging stations is very capital intensive and is a long-term play, as EVs are coming. Realizing the amount of financing (several hundreds of millions of €) was an oh shit moment – today we raised over 600 M€ cumulated (equity), with a last fundraising round of 304M € closed in January 2024.

Very strong competition: as a young startup in 2021, we needed to compete on land acquisition with giants, such as Energy players (Total, Engie, Izivia), OEM-related players (Ionity or Tesla), and other pure players such as Fastned. Given how intense the competition was, it required very strong conviction, focus, and hard work. It still does!

Product / Engineering: In terms of software standard adoption, cybersecurity, and reference implementations, it is still the Wild West out there! It feels like we are pioneers in barely charted territories, which is exciting. We are basically contributing to what will become a crucial, dependable software-enabled infrastructure network, but is today still in its infancy.

Can you break down the keys to this business model for us? What makes it work? And what do outsiders typically not understand about your business model?

Our business model is to secure land, rent it (the longer the better considering the investment), invest and build the stations, which are then Electra’s assets, and operate them: we connect them to our backend, we buy electricity, provide maintenance, customer care, etc. Revenue is generated through the electricity sold to the end customer. Each kWh generates a gross margin that eventually covers our costs.

What sets us apart:

-   the very strong focus on the urban and peri-urban locations

-   the operational excellence (roll out pace, uptime and customer NPS are the best or among the best in the market)

-   the focus on the customer experience (digital and in-station): we want to offer the end customer the best and simplest experience: easy to understand pricing, easy to book a spot, easy to pay, easy to find the station, easy to park (and manipulate cables), auto-charge, plug & charge.

Customer segments:

On one hand, we have real estate partners for our locations, we have partnerships for example with Altarea Commerce, AccorInvest, Louvre Hotels Groupe, Delhaize, Klépierre, Vinci Autoroutes, Casino, Indigo, etc.

On the other hand, we have customers in 2 segments: B2C and B2B. In the B2B segment, we have for example partnerships with:

• OEMs, such as Stellantis MG, Honda and many more coming

• car rental companies, such as Sixt and Hertz

• logistics players, such as some of Amazon’s subcontractors

• ride-hailing players, such as Bolt

• taxis: G7

Since launch, what growth channels have been most effective for you?

Overall, people become aware of Electra through the network expansion. Electra has one of the largest fast-charging networks in France, in Belgium, and very soon in other geographies. Potential customers just see our beautiful stations driving by, or when going to the destination for shopping or eating. They also see our stations on the EMSP platforms, such as Chargemap. The excellent ratings of Electra stations of course help.

We also make sure that every station is correctly referenced on third-party apps such as Google Maps from day 1. Additionally, we are working on partnerships with OEMs to get the Electra network integrated into their route planner.

Of course, we communicate through social media such as Linkedin or Facebook and we maintain strong relations with media. We also work closely with EV influencers, always happy to go test our new stations or our new features.  We set up commercial animations (inauguration of a new site, etc.)

We have a team dedicated to building partnerships with B2B actors (as described in the previous answer). We have a digital platform adapted to B2B EV charging use cases, called Electra Business, allowing for example an easy onboarding, an easy billing platform, etc.

What platforms/tools are absolutely crucial for running your business? What business do you wish someone else would build that would make your job easier?

Among the main and preferred tools/platforms we use (beyond our own in-house software suite of course):

• Precoro: procurement management tool

• Hubspot is our CRM

• Sitetracker: we use it for international rollout, it is a very powerful tool to ensure good project management, including supply and logistics

• Snowflake & Metabase: for data & BI platform

• Notion: excellent knowledge management tool

Not sure it is CPO specific, but we would very much like a modern and agile accounting tool, handling multi-companies!

Congrats on the recent funding! Tell us a bit about the funding round and what you want to achieve with the fresh capital.

Electra just closed a €304 million Series B fundraising, entirely in equity, a record amount in the charging sector. This funding round is led by the Dutch pension fund manager PGGM. BPI France, through its Large Venture fund, also joined Electra's capital on this occasion. Historical investors, notably Eurazeo, as well as RIVE Private Investment, the SNCF group, and Serena, are participating in this round. Over the past three years, Electra has raised nearly €600 million in equity to deploy one of the very first charging networks at the European level.

What are some strong opinions you have about leadership, and how do you actually put those into practice in your company?

1. Lead by Example

• Opinion: A leader should embody the values and work ethic expected of their team.

• Practice: Actively participate in tasks, demonstrate a strong work ethic, and adhere to the values and standards set for the team.

2. Effective, simple and transparent communication

• Opinion: Clear communication is crucial for a successful leader.

• Practice: Foster open communication channels, actively listen to team members, and provide clear and concise instructions. Regularly communicate goals, expectations, and feedback.

3. Empowerment and delegation

• Opinion: Leaders should empower their team members and trust them with responsibilities.

• Practice: Delegate tasks based on team members' strengths, provide the necessary resources and support, and allow autonomy. This helps in skill development and promotes a sense of ownership.

4. Adaptability

• Opinion: Leaders need to be adaptable in a dynamic business environment.

• Practice: Stay informed about industry trends, encourage innovation, and be open to change. Adaptability sets the tone for the team to be flexible and responsive.

5. Recognition and appreciation

• Opinion: Recognizing and appreciating the efforts of team members is vital.

• Practice: Acknowledge achievements, celebrate milestones, and show appreciation for hard work. This fosters a positive work environment and boosts morale.

We also have 3 core values at Electra: passion, simplicity, boldness.

Where can we go to learn more?

Check out our website: https://www.go-electra.com/

3 Links 🔗

• NACS to NACS extension cable 🔌: Tesla confirmed working on a NACS extension cable to solve parking issues at V3 stalls for vehicles with the port on other locations than the rear driver side or front passenger side. A prototype of the cable has been used to drive a Tesla Semi ‘across the country alone’ with only the Supercharger network. After the Adaptercalypse we get to see a cable mess? 😆

• VW cancels ID.3 production plan at HQ ⚙️: In a surprising pivot from its 2021 production strategy, Volkswagen has decided not to increase the production capabilities for the ID.3 at its headquarters. The twist? The current production capacity in Zwickau is sufficient to serve the current demand. Fun & disappointing fact: not a single electric vehicle rolls off the assembly line at Volkswagen's main hub. Maybe it is time to get down those prices for EVs and ship the ID.3 to the U.S. 😉

• Rivian R2 & R3 launch, NACS chargeport location and V2X: ICYMI, check out the launch video of Rivian’s upcoming R2, R3 and R3X vehicles. These vehicles are promising to be very capable and attractively priced mid-size SUVs and crossovers that will directly compete with the world’s best-selling car - Tesla’s Model Y. Our colleagues at Electrek.co had a 15min interview with Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe and hit on all the right details that us charging nerds REALLY care about (Link):

  • Chargeport: The R2 chargeport will be natively NACS and is located on the rear passenger side. Initial reactions were negative as this location is different from Tesla’s driver-side rear which works best with the very short cables at Tesla v3 Superchargers in Europe and North America. Rivians reasoning seems to be two-fold: 1) Passenger-rear works better with Rivian’s Adventure Network and 2) it’s also a superior location for curbside charging while street parking which Rivian expects to become more common place in the US (already popular in European metros).

  • Voltage: Rivian didn’t specifically disclose whether the R2/R3 platform will be a 400V or 800V architecture, but RJ hints that they are trying to maximize common parts/carryover with the 400V R1 platform to achieve cost targets.

  • V2X: This was not covered during the ~40min launch presentation, but BIG NEWS here that the R2/R3 platform will be capable of 240V AC Bi-directional charging via the NACS chargeport. RJ also announced that this bi-directional on-board charge will be carried upstream to future R1 platform vehicles. He also clarified that current R1S/R1T vehicles would only support DC bidirectional charging with a software update and a compatible bi-directional DC wallbox (but no word on if/when this will happen).

Most-clicked link last week: was Felix Hamer’s tweet about Tesla’s new charging price display in Peine, Germany (Link).

Opportunity🗝️:

Recently we’ve been thinking about sharing emobility startup investing opportunities with y’all by building a mailing list.

So if you:

• are a keen believer in e-mobility and share our passion for EVs and charging ⚡️

• love the idea of having exposure to promising EV startups in both Silicon Valley and across Europe 🚀

• are comfortable making private company investments and have at least $25,000 / 25.000€ in patient capital to invest over the next few years 💰

Then complete this 1-minute survey and get in touch with us:

We’ll reach out to those interested over the coming weeks.

Have a good week friends,

Janek & Julius

Meme of the Week 🤡

🤣🤣🤣

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel and leave some feedback (We read every single one of these 🙂 ):

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️ Pretty decent on⚡ Look at this Indoor Fast-Charging Hub and wrote:

“Indoor Charging Hub! Nice - but a little bit over the top! :-D Naturally, it's a great safe space for women and families during charging breaks! I find Renault's goal with the 16,000 V2X-Ready AC Wallboxes exciting. I would have thought that there is already a common sense about DC-V2X? Okay, V2X over AC is still better than over ChaDeMo (See Octopus). ;-) Happy Week!”

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. The Electric Avenue team may hold investments in or may otherwise be affiliated with the companies discussed.