Today, ChargeLab is announcing its $15 million Series A financing. The round was led by King River Capital, with participation from ABB E-Mobility and existing investors including Construct Capital, Root Ventures, Highline Beta, Third Sphere, and Maple VC.
ChargeLab builds software to operate and optimize electric vehicle charging equipment. ChargeLab’s software runs at the edge and in the cloud, empowering fleets, building operators, and utilities to deploy large numbers of EV chargers and manage them as an intelligent network. ChargeLab’s API-first architecture makes its platform more modular and scalable than those of its competitors. Key capabilities of the ChargeLab platform include automated monitoring of EV chargers, management of pricing and access rules, payment processing, and electrical load balancing.
ChargeLab does not build any hardware. Instead, the company partners with leading EV charger manufacturers like ABB, Phihong, United Chargers, Siemens, and Tritium. ChargeLab and these manufacturers form part of an open EV charging ecosystem driven by the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP).
“My partners and I have seen the power of software-first energy management solutions at scale before,” said Megan Guy, Co-Founder & Partner at King River Capital. “EV charging today is a messy and inefficient experience for consumers and enterprises alike. As mass adoption of EVs continues to accelerate, we all deserve better. King River believes that ChargeLab is positioned to become the dominant back-end software provider for the EV charging industry and deliver a reliable, high-quality experience for the entirety of the ecosystem. That’s why we were thrilled to lead this round.”
“As the EV market continues to undergo massive growth, the value proposition of ChargeLab’s hardware agnostic software becomes increasingly apparent to both vendor and user,” said Malin Carlstrom, Head of Ventures at ABB EL Ventures. “We believe that Zak and his team are poised to create the Android of charging systems, and that ABB can be a strategic and financial partner, delivering significant benefits to both parties.”
ChargeLab’s core product is a cloud-based charging station management system (CSMS). It also provides apps for EV drivers, dashboards for fleet managers and site hosts, and open APIs for integration with third-party systems. ChargeLab’s CSMS is white-labeled by leading charging networks throughout North America, including Girardin Energy, TurnOnGreen, and EVSTART.
“ChargeLab’s vision is to connect millions of EV chargers in the next decade,” said Zak Lefevre, co-founder and CEO of ChargeLab. “The road to achieving this goal starts today. We’re committed to making EV chargers more reliable for EV fleets and drivers.”
“We’re also making it easier for enterprises to deploy and manage EV chargers through modular software and open APIs,” added co-founder and CTO, Ehsan Mokhtari. “Our configuration tools help installers provision EV chargers in minutes instead of days, our automated monitoring makes EV charger operations a breeze, and our web app allows end-users to charge just by scanning a QR code.”
ChargeLab raised its Seed round, co-led by Root Ventures and Construct Capital, in 2021. The Series A raise brings the company’s total venture financing to over $20 million. Megan Guy will be joining ChargeLab’s Board of Directors in conjunction with closing of the round.
About ChargeLab
ChargeLab builds a hardware-agnostic software platform for managing electric vehicle chargers. With 200 million new EVs hitting the road in the next decade, their mission is to solve smart EV charging at scale. ChargeLab’s customers include fleets, building owners, convenience stores, and utilities. They leverage ChargeLab’s charging station management system (CSMS) and open APIs to manage thousands of EV chargers more efficiently.
About King River Capital
King River Capital invests in post-revenue, high-growth software businesses that are solving critical problems within large markets. Since its launch in 2019, King River has raised three venture funds and has committed capital into over twenty companies across the US and Australia. The firm was founded by three partners, Chris Barter, Zeb Rice, and Megan Guy, all of whom have a strong track record in early to mid-stage venture investing.
About ABB EL Ventures
ABB EL Ventures is the venture arm of ABB’s Electrification Business Area. EL Ventures closely collaborates with the Electrification divisions to help them achieve strategic goals through driving the ideation, scouting, assessment, and execution phases of made-to-measure start-up engagements. EL Ventures was established in 2020 and has a mandate to invest $20 million globally each year in the areas of E-mobility, Smart Power, Smart Cities and Smart Buildings.
Media contact:
ChargeLab Inc.
press@chargelab.co
1 (800) 636-0986 ext. 210
Note to reader: all monetary figures are in U.S. dollars.