Better Place, the 'battery switch model' electric car network provider, has confirmed that it has secured $200 million in a Series C equity financing round from existing investors (including Israel Corp., HSBC Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Ofer Group and Maniv Energy Capital) and new investors. First time investors in the battery exchange company in this round include GE and UBS AG.
Better Place, which will own the batteries which power the cars it services, has now raised over $750 million since it was founded in 2007. The latest fund raising (due to close during the fourth quarter of this year) values the firm at $2.25 billion (post money), almost double the valuation of the last financing round, in January 2010.
Better Place, which plans to launch electric car networks in Israel and Denmark early next year and in Australia in the second quarter of 2012, plans to expand into Western Europe with the funds raised. The company already has deployment projects in Northern California, Southern China, Japan, Ontario, Canada and Hawaii.
Better Place Founder and CEO, Shai Agassi, says the company is entering the next phase, “where we prove that our solution works, that it’s in demand, and that it scales". He added that the company's investors "should be applauded for having the vision to finance the future of transportation.”
As Idan Ofer, Better Place chairman, observes, the company's shareholder base "includes the world’s largest banks, blue chip asset managers and leading industrial holding companies”.
Better Place already has a staff of more than 100 in Europe and will leverage its Danish operations to expand in the region. It opened an office in Paris in September this year, which will serve as its European headquarters.
The company, which is in the final stages of technical validation of its solution, using the Renault Fluence Z.E., has set itself the goal to make the switchable battery electric car the top selling car in the markets it enters. In Israel, over 400 corporations with a combined potential fleet of 80,000 have signed letters of intent to begin switching their fleets to Better Place as the service and cars are rolled out. In Denmark, Better Place has received over 1,000 pre-orders from both private and business customers - and has reached agreements with over half of Danish municipalities on infrastructure deployment and fleet transitions. In Australia, the company has partnered with local companies such as ActewAGL, Lend Lease, and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), as well as multinationals Renault and GE.
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