Ingenious Invests In Electric Vehicle Charging Firm
Ingenious announces that its
Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service has invested £750,000 in award-winning
electric vehicle (EV) charging company, Elmtronics, a leading independent
provider of charging points. The funding forms part of a £1.5m investment
alongside the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), which is supported by the
European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia. The investment will
be used to step up the
roll-out of Elmtronics' charging points across the UK.
The investment follows the announcement
that the UK government is to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from
2030 and will allow Elmtronics to step up its work in underserved UK regions.
Elmtronics has developed its own software - Hubsta - which is installed on the
charging points and measures customers' electricity use, allowing them to
manage their account and pay for charging services. The funding will not only
enable it to further enhance the software but also support the creation of 19
new jobs around the country in the next three months, almost doubling the size
of its workforce.
Elmtronics was established in 2016 by
former electricians Dan Martin and Anthony Piggott. Based in Consett and with
offices in Bristol, Manchester and London, the firm supplies and installs
public charging stations as well as those for homes and businesses. Its clients
include Nike, the NHS, National Grid, FedEx, Taylor Wimpey and a number of city
councils.
Neil
Forster, Chief Executive Officer at Ingenious,
commented: “We have been following the progress of Elmtronics for some time and
are delighted to back a company that aligns strongly with our investment
strategy as it is well placed in an under-served market, made all the more
relevant by last week's news of Government action to promote the use of
electric vehicles. We are very much looking forward to working closely with Dan
and his team.”
Dan Martin, Chief Executive Officer,
Elmtronics, said: “The
latest Government announcement is another big step forward on the ‘road to net
zero'. However, despite the growing popularity of EVs with consumers and fleet
users, a lack of charging points continues to deter many from making the
switch. This funding will allow us to step up our activity to help build the
all-important infrastructure. We hope to make Elmtronics a key player in the
roll-out.”
The transaction represents the eighth
investment round from the Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service in the last two
years, following the backing of Igloo Vision, the Shropshire-based immersive
software and technology company that can take any digital content and put it
into a shared immersive space; Shoreline, the intelligent field operations
management software start-up; TeraView, pioneer and leader in terahertz
technology and solutions; 3D Repo, the cloud-based digital platform design
pioneers; Winnow, the technology company behind Winnow Vision, the artificial
intelligence tool helping chefs cut food waste in half; Over-C, an analytics
company focused on operational performance in the workforce management market
and Reactive Technologies, a technology platform facilitating the transition to
a low carbon future.
