Pod Point, a UK based charge point suppliers for electric vehicles that claims to be leading the European market, is nearing its targeted funding goal of £1.75 million. The “Electric Equity” plus “Open Charge Bond”, has offered a minimum of £250,000 in a 8% bond or £1.5 million for a 5.45% equity stake in the firm. To date, £1,305,270 in equity and £187,750 in debt has been raised for a total sum of £1,494,020 on investment crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. A single investor provided £500,000 for the equity offer. Pod Point previously raised £1.45 million in equity capital on competing platform Seedrs. Pod Point has positioned the company to supply the charging stations for the growing legion of electric cars most notably identified with the popular Tesla brand. BMW has publicly stated that all of their car models will be electric within ten years, a comment that is indicative of the shift from petrol to electric vehicles. The funding round will be used to bolster growth by improving the firm’s sales capability, developing chargepoint hardware and continuing to software products. The capital will also aid with the roll out of the Open Charge network of public charge points.
Wow – we’ve raised 81% of our funding target! Help us reach 100%: https://t.co/w2ak0h2t2A #InvestAware #ukcharge pic.twitter.com/3PiHrdh30z
— POD Point (@POD_Point) November 30, 2015
Pod Point states that 85% of all car charging will be done at home. They say the cost of running an electric car is significantly lower than a petrol or diesel and will cost the driver as little as 2 pence per mile potentially saving electric vehicle drivers an estimated £1100 per year. Pod Point’s public charging network, POD Point Open Charge, is an App based system available to anyone without any long term commitment. The company expects to install over 1000 stations in the coming year.
The offer of both debt and equity may appeal to different investor sectors with the debt portion designed to interest more risk averse investors. The combo offer is also indicative of the growing sophistication of both platforms and issuers as to how they raise capital online.
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