COPENHAGEN-BASED STARTUP Monta SCORES $30 MILLION TO PUSH FORWARD EUROPE’S EV CHARGING ECOSYSTEM
Transforming mobility is one of Europe’s transitions to a greener society, and adopting electric vehicles (EV) across EU cities is currently widespread, with electricity fuelling bikes, scooters, and cars in the continent. Based on this, Greentech startup Monta on a mission in this space has reportedly secured an additional $30 million to scale up the EU’s EV charging infrastructure.
Prior to this development, records have it that in 2021 Europe’s EV sales increased by more than 65% which is significant progress for the European green transition. But there is something needed to keep these vehicles running that appears to be severely lacking, and that is the charging points. As figured out, one could barely find an appreciable number of well-maintained EV charging points.
In view of this, Greentech startup Monta is reportedly on a mission to change this and is currently building the infrastructure to fuel this new generation of mobility.
As part of the startup’s Series A+ round, the Danish company which was founded in 2020 is believed to be enjoying electricity growth. However, the latest investment was led by Energize Ventures, a leading global investment manager accelerating digital innovation for energy and sustainability, the round also saw participation from returning investors Pale Blue Dot, Creandum, byFounders, and Headline. The fresh fund brings Manta’s total to $50 million.
Monta CEO, ‘Casper Rasmussen’, said: “The investment from Energize and our returning investors is a strong vote of confidence in our vision, team, and software as the cornerstone of the mobility infrastructure of the future”.
Monta AS AN ALL-IN-ONE EV PLATFORM
As a company being led by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs with experience managing large software development organizations, startup Monta is delivering an all-in-one EV charging platform that simplifies and streamlines the deployment, use, and management of EV charging infrastructure. This is believed to be a game changer for the industry and promises to offer the needed boost in this space.
There is also a concern over European EV products, and this is based on the fact that as citizens across the continent of Europe continue to buy EVs, about 3000 new public charge points need to be built each week based on reports in order to reach its target of operating one million charge points by 2025. Equally, it’s also worth noting that the existing infrastructure isn’t perfectly the most user-friendly and constitutes high fragmentation across operators and owners. Based on this, efforts have been made by the startup’s team to ensure that EV charging is simple and seamless for all users.
Casper Rasmussen explained: “The ability to take advantage of these new opportunities requires changes in information flows among grid devices as well as innovations in communication and coordination tools that increase the observability, predictability, and controllability of the grid. The societal impact and environmental potential of these technologies are massive. Monta is at the forefront of developing the systems needed to monitor and reward this flexibility to create an equitable energy solution for all EV drivers”.
Regarding the subject platform, charge point owners have full visibility into charge point use, transactions, pricing, and access. While for EV drivers, startup Monta offers reservation, and virtual queuing coupled with payment features under a single platform as well as access to public charge points.
Juan Muldoon, Partner at Energize Ventures: “The market penetration of electric vehicles is climbing sharply as economic, regulatory, and climate levers accelerate EV adoption – and deployment of charging infrastructure has to keep pace. We expect more than 1.6 million public chargers and 20 million private charging stations to be deployed in the U.S. and Europe by 2025. As the market for charge point hardware grows and commodities, Monta offers a software solution that enables a consistent, improved charging experience for players throughout the EV charging value chain – from installers to drivers. We’re thrilled to partner with the Monta team as they pave the way for a more scalable and sustainable EV infrastructure”.
Also in the company’s efforts, the Copenhagen-based has signed up some prominent aviation, utility, and transportation industry companies such as CPH Airport, Vestas, and PostNord. Similarly, startup Monta also secured a strategic partnership with hardware manufacturers to launch its Powered by Monta (PBM) program in multiple markets. Key partners to its PBM program include CTEK, Garo, and ABB with each boasting a range of charge points in Europe as well as Zaptec, the latter recently launched a co-branded app for its user known as Zaptec Park.
The fresh investment will help Monta expand to new markets including North America, as it consolidates its position in Scandinavia, Germany, and the UK, all of which have legislation in place slated to ban new ICE vehicle sales by 2025, 2030, and 2035 respectively. To further support the agenda of the EU and the US – which has set a goal for 50% of its car sales to be EVs by 2030.
- What’s your take on Monta’s latest?
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