Press releases

Frankfurt am Main, 23.11.2018

Wirelane GmbH, Munich, a full-service provider for electromobility, has successfully raised EUR 4 million of growth capital from investors in a Series A financing round. The funding injection will be used to accelerate the development of the software and hardware offering for intelligent charging infrastructure solutions.

The financing round was led by the early-stage investor Vito Ventures, an investment subsidiary of the heating technology manufacturer Viessmann, venture capitalist Coparion, the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and the Dortmund based medium-sized enterprise Ritter Starkstromtechnik.

Initiator of Wirelane is Constantin Schwaab, an experienced entrepreneur who has made a name for himself as the founder of the online ticket platform KINOHELD. Moreover, he is shareholder of Plain Energy GmbH, a solar Independent Power Producer, which Capcora accompanied in 2017 on the issuance of a Junior Bond of EUR 10 million.

Wirelane considers itself as a key technology enabler of the upcoming pan-European charging infrastructure roll-out for Electric Vehicles. The current customer base in Germany, Sweden, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands already includes 35 municipal utilities (Stadtwerke) as well as international utilities and industrial groups such as VW, Vattenfall and Bouygues. The Wirelane software is already being used at more than 6,000 charging points and is to serve more than 300,000 charging points throughout Europe in the next few years.

In addition to the software solutions, which include management software for charging station operators as Software-as-a-Service and a mobile app, Wirelane also offers its customers an in-house developed charging station with 22 kW. With the fresh capital, Wirelane wants to develop this charging infrastructure series, which is traded under the name Wirelane W1, to market maturity. Important accents have already been set by announcing a cooperation agreement with the DAX company Wirecard in August this year. The cooperation has the goal of making contactless payment at charging stations possible.

"With our technology, we want to simplify all requirements for charging infrastructure, from finding charging stations to billing and maintenance. With the fresh capital of our new partners, we are one step closer to our goal of becoming an independent key player in Europe, "said Constantin Schwaab, CEO and ounder.

With the successful completion of this transaction, Capcora is breaking new ground. It is on the one hand the first start-up financing that was accompanied by the consulting firm, on the other hand, the transaction represents the market entry in a future increasingly important field of infrastructure financing. Experts assume that under the current regulatory framework at least every third car will be electric until 2035. Thus, an enormous expansion of the charging infrastructure is necessary in the coming years.

"We are pleased that we received the chance to support Wirelane in this important phase of corporate growth. The charging infrastructure in Europe is still in its infancy and needs creative minds to tackle this problem with a meaningful and forward-looking approach, "said Alexander Enrique Kuhn, managing director and responsible for the sector energy and infrastructure at Capcora.

Capcora advised Wirelane in process and transaction management including financial modeling.

About Wirelane GmbH:

Wirelane a full-service provider in the electromobility sector. Wirelane provides key software-as-a-service, mobile app and charge point hardware solutions to electric mobility providers, especially for customers such as energy providers and private B2B companies. Today the company is already active in four countries and includes large industrial customers such as VW, Vattenfall or Bouygues among its customer base. www.wirelane.com

About Capcora:

Capcora is a consulting firm, specialized on real assets. Capcora procures equity, mezzanine and debt financing for energy and infrastructure projects, real estate, and medium sized companies. The focus is especially on mezzanine financing for the recapitalization of tied-up liquidity in operating assets as well as for bridge financing of developments and construction measures in the area of renewable energies (photovoltaics, onshore wind) and real estate through alternative financing sources. www.capcora.com