POD point have raised 82 percent of their £1,550,000 target, with 19 days remaining of their crowd-funding campaign.
The company, which aims to increase the availability of electric car charging stations, is drawing a close to a successful round of funding for its initiative. Its customer base includes supermarket giants such as Sainsbury’s, Lidl and car-manufacturers such as Nissan, Volvo, VW and Hyundai. POD Point hopes to expand its already extensive network, having already supplied in excess of “44 million miles of electric motoring”, with a charge started on its network “every 42 seconds”.
The current round of funding is part of a larger drive of capital raising, in a bid to raise £9 million. The fundraiser is being led by venture capital firm Draper Espirit with an investment of £3 million for news shares as well as £2 million for secondaries. In addition, Barclays Bank (LON:BARC) are supplying £2 million venture debt alongside a further £550,000 investment from angel investors.
The group have calculated that with already over 70,000 electric cars in operation in the UK, the company can easily capitalise on the expanding consumer demand with numbers forecast to increase by a further 500,000 by the year 2020. The company currently has claim to 1,500 charging points nationwide.
PodPoint was founded in 2009 by Chief Executive Erik Fairbain in the midst of the financial crisis. Mr Fairbain has stated that the ambition of the company is to: “put a POD Point everywhere you park for an hour or more.” in a bid to encourage environmentally friendly transportation.
This follows increased concern over the dangerous levels of pollution that continue to rise in the capital. Whilst Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has pledged to warn Londoners whenever the threat of pollution is particularly high, emission levels remain considerably high with Europe escalating warnings to UK for breaching legal limits.
The current round of funding has been raised by a total of 725 investors with an equity of 4.20 percent. The company’s pre-money valuation is estimated at £35,341,680.