• Ampeco, the Bulgarian startup offering EV charging and energy management software, raised a $13M Series A from BMW iVentures, the Silicon Valley-based hybrid VC arm of BMW, and LAUNCHub Ventures, one of the leading VCs in Southeast Europe, among others.
• The company’s first VC funding will be pumped into further conquering the North American market, as well as developing the product.
• Originating from Sofia, Ampeco’s operations now extend across Europe, with a presence in 45 markets.
When they first contemplated entering the e-mobility market, the Ampeco founding team was looking into a car-sharing and EV charging infrastructure business. However, once they realized there was no smart EV charging management software that matched their needs, they saw in it a bigger opportunity.
And good thing they did. To date, Ampeco’s white-label solution has been used by 120 customers, their infrastructure has reached 62,000 charging points, and their team grew to 80 people.
“For a company like ours, we see a clear path to becoming a unicorn. The market can sustain it, the time is right. And we believe that we have the execution track record and the capability to achieve this goal,” CEO Orlin Radev was telling The Recursive back in 2021.
Their track record and potential for further development in the North American market meant Ampeco was ready for its first VC round. And here’s where BMW iVentures entered the picture.
BMW’s VC arm had previously backed similar players in the EV charging market, including Chargepoint and Chargemaster, both with successful exits, on the stock market and via an acquisition by BP, respectively.
With EV sales projected to reach 29.5% of all new car sales by 2030, up from 3.4% in 2021, this will put 4.2 million more electric cars on the road by the end of the decade, in the US alone. In this context, the demand for access to EV charging infrastructure will also increase exponentially.
Solutions such as Ampeco’s are aimed at enabling EV charging providers to launch, monitor, optimize, and grow their own EV charging networks fast and effectively. Their cloud platform is hardware-agnostic, can be integrated with any payment processor and all existing systems, and can be used to optimize charging and reduce maintenance, and energy costs.
“The solution developed by Ampeco solves the reliability issues in EV charging infrastructure on a global scale, and we are thrilled with the company’s potential to confidently lead the space. We are excited to get on board a reputable investor in the EV space, in a sizable round that will accelerate the product adoption globally,” said Rumen Iliev, partner at LAUNCHub Ventures.
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This story is in development. More details to follow soon.
