Berlin-based Swobbee, a leading provider of rental batteries and battery swapping stations for urban mobility, has raised another 2 million Euro in an extended Series A round. Polish fund SpeedUp Energy Innovation and Dutch Stichting Clean Future Dividend Fund joined the group of earlier investors. The company will use the raised capital to intensify its efforts to scale the solution in additional European and non-European markets.
Founded in 2017 as GreenPack and pivoted to Swobbee in 2020, the climate tech startup developed a solution based on integrated hardware and software to offer battery swapping stations for electric vehicles. Thus reducing the barrier of adoption of innovations from the electric mobility sector by building charging infrastructure. The company aims at increasing the profitability of most of the shared micromobility players by leveraging the usability of light electric vehicles, resulting in the reduction of the vehicle’s downtime due to the need to charge the batteries.
The company's battery swapping infrastructure takes the responsibility for the physical process of recharging batteries off the hands of light electric vehicle owners or suppliers operating under the so-called last-mile delivery model. Each of our stations is equipped with 8 to 30 battery slots. We currently offer charging infrastructure for 8 (soon 10) types of batteries, which, in Europe, allows us to be compatible with about 70% of current light electric vehicles, or so-called LEVs, used by players in the shared micromobility as well as last-mile-delivery sectors. - describes the solution to Thomas Duscha, CEO and co-founder of Swobbee. Using our device, the owner or manager of the vehicle swaps an empty battery with a full one in a few minutes and can continue using the vehicle, without unnecessary downtime. - Duscha adds.
Co-founder & CEO Thomas Duscha built his business experience working for brands such as Lidl, Adidas, and the Azoty Group, as well as creating the GreenPack project, which laid the foundation for today's Swobbee. Stephan von Wolff (COO) and Ludwig Speidel (CFO) complement the executive positions with their profound expertise in the hardware-industry and finance.
A key part of Swobbee's product is the software installed in the charging stations and the application that enables smooth and efficient use of the stations. The software, created from scratch by the company's team, is an end-to-end solution, meaning that it controls the entire battery charging and management process within the station.
With its activities, the company supports the fight against pollution, which is in line with the regulatory objectives indicated by EU bodies. With an infrastructure that supports urban electric vehicles, offering easy access and extending the possible range of routes taken by users, Swobbee allows operators of fleets of light electric vehicles, such as bicycles and scooters, to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 87%.
The company operates in the urban micromobility market, whose global market potential, according to a McKinsey report, is estimated at around €500 billion in 2030. Swobbee's product is already used by companies such as Tier, Onomotion, Bolt, and Galp. The urban micromobility market is estimated to grow at a CAGR rate of about 17.5% over the next seven years. Of which the largest segment of this market, as much as 73%, involves electric-powered devices.
Our cities are polluted and overcrowded. It is impossible to fit more cars on streets that were sometimes built hundreds of years ago. That's why it's so important to make the use of LEVs economically viable and useful at the same time - comments Bartłomiej Gola, General Partner of SpeedUp Energy Innovation which is part of SpeedUp Group. When the micromobility trend began, technology was not ready for the use of replaceable batteries in LEVs, which significantly minimize vehicle downtime, thereby improving their unit economics. Swobbee, in our opinion, is likely to become one of the key beneficiaries of technological advances in this area. What's more, we predict that the use of micromobility devices will amount to up to 15% of all short-distance trips, with a range of up to 8 kilometers. This is just one of the market figures that leads us to believe in the enormous potential facing the Swobbee team. - Gola adds.
"We are thrilled to invest in Swobbee, which is at the forefront of sustainable micro-mobility solutions," said Dagmar Parizkova, Director of Clean Future Dividend Fund foundation (stichting). "Swobbee's battery-as-a-service and charging-as-a-service model is not only environmentally friendly but also highly practical, enabling seamless mobility through their industry-leading software and hardware. Having spent many years in the energy storage space, Clean Future Dividend Fund is equipped to assist Swobbee in all facets of its business.” We are proud to co-invest alongside EIT InnoEnergy, one of the largest investors of sustainable energy, to support this exciting sector."
“Having spent many hours engaging with the management team of Swobbee, we are confident that their leadership will guide them to success,” noted Devin Sebok from Richfox Capital, fund manager of Clean Future Dividend Fund. “With the boom in the e-mobility sector, companies like Swobbee that are providing the much-needed infrastructure will allow the EU to hit their zero-emission goals.”
The SpeedUp Energy Innovation Fund and Stichting Clean Future Dividend Fund have joined an extended Round A, in which the company was previously backed by EIT InnoEnergy among other investors. The team plans to use the funds raised to further develop its platform and, most importantly, to expand its network of stations in Germany and other countries. In particular, Swobbee's expansion plans outside Germany envisage entering Eastern European and Southeast Asian markets in the upcoming months and years. So far, Swobbee is already operating stations in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal.
About SpeedUp
SpeedUp Venture Capital Group is a leading group of venture capital funds, investing in enterprises in an early stage of development (seed - Series A). Areas of their interest include enterprises and entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe, who want to conquer the global market by utilizing their self-developed solutions. Cooperation with companies is based on a 3-8 year investment horizon. SpeedUp Group looking for innovations from areas such as: consumer internet, electromobility, EnergyTech, MarTech, Sustainability, MedTech, IoT and hardware.
For more information, visit www.speedupgroup.com
About CFDF
The Clean Future Dividend Fund (CFDF) was founded in February 2020. CFDF is investing in both promising and already established renewable energy, energy storage, and battery technology projects and companies with the ultimate goal of delivering an outperforming return to its investors and promoting the use of renewable and cleaner energy sources and energy storage technologies throughout the world. The fund manager is Richfox Capital Investment Management B.V.
For more information, visit www.cfdf.eu
Founded in 2017 as GreenPack and pivoted to Swobbee in 2020, the climate tech startup developed a solution based on integrated hardware and software to offer battery swapping stations for electric vehicles. Thus reducing the barrier of adoption of innovations from the electric mobility sector by building charging infrastructure. The company aims at increasing the profitability of most of the shared micromobility players by leveraging the usability of light electric vehicles, resulting in the reduction of the vehicle’s downtime due to the need to charge the batteries.
The company's battery swapping infrastructure takes the responsibility for the physical process of recharging batteries off the hands of light electric vehicle owners or suppliers operating under the so-called last-mile delivery model. Each of our stations is equipped with 8 to 30 battery slots. We currently offer charging infrastructure for 8 (soon 10) types of batteries, which, in Europe, allows us to be compatible with about 70% of current light electric vehicles, or so-called LEVs, used by players in the shared micromobility as well as last-mile-delivery sectors. - describes the solution to Thomas Duscha, CEO and co-founder of Swobbee. Using our device, the owner or manager of the vehicle swaps an empty battery with a full one in a few minutes and can continue using the vehicle, without unnecessary downtime. - Duscha adds.
Co-founder & CEO Thomas Duscha built his business experience working for brands such as Lidl, Adidas, and the Azoty Group, as well as creating the GreenPack project, which laid the foundation for today's Swobbee. Stephan von Wolff (COO) and Ludwig Speidel (CFO) complement the executive positions with their profound expertise in the hardware-industry and finance.
A key part of Swobbee's product is the software installed in the charging stations and the application that enables smooth and efficient use of the stations. The software, created from scratch by the company's team, is an end-to-end solution, meaning that it controls the entire battery charging and management process within the station.
With its activities, the company supports the fight against pollution, which is in line with the regulatory objectives indicated by EU bodies. With an infrastructure that supports urban electric vehicles, offering easy access and extending the possible range of routes taken by users, Swobbee allows operators of fleets of light electric vehicles, such as bicycles and scooters, to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 87%.
The company operates in the urban micromobility market, whose global market potential, according to a McKinsey report, is estimated at around €500 billion in 2030. Swobbee's product is already used by companies such as Tier, Onomotion, Bolt, and Galp. The urban micromobility market is estimated to grow at a CAGR rate of about 17.5% over the next seven years. Of which the largest segment of this market, as much as 73%, involves electric-powered devices.
Our cities are polluted and overcrowded. It is impossible to fit more cars on streets that were sometimes built hundreds of years ago. That's why it's so important to make the use of LEVs economically viable and useful at the same time - comments Bartłomiej Gola, General Partner of SpeedUp Energy Innovation which is part of SpeedUp Group. When the micromobility trend began, technology was not ready for the use of replaceable batteries in LEVs, which significantly minimize vehicle downtime, thereby improving their unit economics. Swobbee, in our opinion, is likely to become one of the key beneficiaries of technological advances in this area. What's more, we predict that the use of micromobility devices will amount to up to 15% of all short-distance trips, with a range of up to 8 kilometers. This is just one of the market figures that leads us to believe in the enormous potential facing the Swobbee team. - Gola adds.
"We are thrilled to invest in Swobbee, which is at the forefront of sustainable micro-mobility solutions," said Dagmar Parizkova, Director of Clean Future Dividend Fund foundation (stichting). "Swobbee's battery-as-a-service and charging-as-a-service model is not only environmentally friendly but also highly practical, enabling seamless mobility through their industry-leading software and hardware. Having spent many years in the energy storage space, Clean Future Dividend Fund is equipped to assist Swobbee in all facets of its business.” We are proud to co-invest alongside EIT InnoEnergy, one of the largest investors of sustainable energy, to support this exciting sector."
“Having spent many hours engaging with the management team of Swobbee, we are confident that their leadership will guide them to success,” noted Devin Sebok from Richfox Capital, fund manager of Clean Future Dividend Fund. “With the boom in the e-mobility sector, companies like Swobbee that are providing the much-needed infrastructure will allow the EU to hit their zero-emission goals.”
The SpeedUp Energy Innovation Fund and Stichting Clean Future Dividend Fund have joined an extended Round A, in which the company was previously backed by EIT InnoEnergy among other investors. The team plans to use the funds raised to further develop its platform and, most importantly, to expand its network of stations in Germany and other countries. In particular, Swobbee's expansion plans outside Germany envisage entering Eastern European and Southeast Asian markets in the upcoming months and years. So far, Swobbee is already operating stations in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal.
About SpeedUp
SpeedUp Venture Capital Group is a leading group of venture capital funds, investing in enterprises in an early stage of development (seed - Series A). Areas of their interest include enterprises and entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe, who want to conquer the global market by utilizing their self-developed solutions. Cooperation with companies is based on a 3-8 year investment horizon. SpeedUp Group looking for innovations from areas such as: consumer internet, electromobility, EnergyTech, MarTech, Sustainability, MedTech, IoT and hardware.
For more information, visit www.speedupgroup.com
About CFDF
The Clean Future Dividend Fund (CFDF) was founded in February 2020. CFDF is investing in both promising and already established renewable energy, energy storage, and battery technology projects and companies with the ultimate goal of delivering an outperforming return to its investors and promoting the use of renewable and cleaner energy sources and energy storage technologies throughout the world. The fund manager is Richfox Capital Investment Management B.V.
For more information, visit www.cfdf.eu
