This article was originally published by Alex Riehl for BetaKit. Read the full article here.
Toronto-based Swtch Energy, which develops electric vehicle (EV) charging and management solutions for multi-tenant buildings, has raised $27.2 million USD ($37.4 million CAD) in Series B funding.
The all-equity round was led by global impact investor Blue Earth Capital, Alantra’s Energy Transition Fund, Klima, GIGA Investments Corp, and return investor Active Impact Investments.
Swtch said the new funding will help it leverage machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), expand its integrations with other software solutions, and further scale charger deployments in multifamily and commercial buildings across North America. When reached for comment, Swtch declined to elaborate on how it will integrate AI and ML.
Communitech recently added Swtch to its list of Canadian tech companies with the potential to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2030.
Lead investor Blue Earth Capital said it’s pleased to see Swtch’s deployment and technological leadership to date, and is excited to partner with the startup to support its growth stage.
“Electrification and supporting the energy transition is a key investment theme for our climate growth strategy, and an important component of this is the continued expansion of EV infrastructure,” Blue Earth Capital’s head of private equity, Kayode Akinola, said in a statement. “The multifamily space served by Swtch offers a valuable market opportunity to grow our clean energy economy.”
Swtch told BetaKit that the funding round closed on April 5 and will see Swtch add two seats to its board, one yet to be filled and another to be occupied by Alantra partner Manuel Alamillo. Swtch added that it has raised $40.2 million to date.
Swtch was co-founded in 2016 by CEO Carter Li and former head of product Laura Bryson, with the aim of making EV charging stations in large cities more accessible outside of single-unit residential homes. Bryson departed her role as head of product to join telematics provider Geotab in April 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Initially pitched as an AirBnb-like service where users could pay to access others’ charging stations, Swtch pivoted to working with real estate developers and property management companies to put its infrastructure directly into buildings. The startup also developed an EV charging and energy management platform, which allows building managers to control usage enforcement, billing, and energy management.
Swtch went on to raise as $1.1 million seed round in 2020 and a $16.5-million CAD Series A round in April 2022, when it also claimed it would use the capital for expansion across North America. Swtch claimed 1,500 of its charging stations were installed in North America at the time of the Series A round. Following the Series B raise, Swtch claims it has seen a tenfold increase in its charging network since that Series A round, originally telling BetaKit it now had 10,000 charging ports across North America, but later revised that number to 15,000.
The startup also has one year left on piloting a blockchain-enabled EV charging station, Swtch told BetaKit. The project tracks when energy is drawn from a car’s battery and when it’s charged, creating a history of credits and debits managed through blockchain technology that participants can monitor on their phones.
This past January, Swtch joined Hopper, Koho, and Neo Financial on Communitech’s list of new Canadian tech companies it thinks have the potential to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2030. To be considered for the list, companies must meet specific criteria for year-over-year revenue growth and annual revenue.
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