Mumbai : Electric vehicle charging solutions company BRIGHTBLU has secured a $1.6mln investment from Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries that will help accelerate its international expansion. The Mumbai based startup’s made-in-India products cater to the Indian and European markets.
“We focus on the Indian market, which is an enormous market where urban air pollution is a massive problem, and on exports to the European market. We need to transition to a clean energy future and enable the adoption of sustainable transportation through the use of electric vehicles. Our products are a part of the solution. Our current strategy with onboarding a strong and focused new shareholder creates momentum for our vision to become a global supplier of high quality intelligent charging solutions that accelerate the global adoption of electric vehicles.” said Wybren van der Vaart, co-founder and CEO, BRIGHTBLU.
“In Koolen Industries we have yet again found the shareholder we were looking for. Kees and his team bring a unique combination of being laser-focused on the energy transition and experience in rapidly scaling global technology companies,” van der Vaart further added.
BRIGHTBLU has developed and designed the entire intelligent charging technology stack in-house and the investment will help fund further in-house research and development of both plug-and-charge and vehicle-to-grid solutions. The team is also in the process of setting up new high-tech research and development centre in Pune where the funds will be used to hire talent and create new cutting-edge charging technologies.
“BRIGHTBLU’s proven ability to seamlessly integrate software and hardware to develop and deliver price-competitive intelligent EV charging solutions makes it an ideal supplier to the corporate sector, where demand is set to soar as ever more manufacturers and utilities decide to participate in the energy transition,” said Kees Koolen, CEO, Koolen Industries.
As the latest member of the Koolen Industry family of more than 25 clean energy companies, BRIGHTBLU will have the opportunity to participate in projects that require complex multi-disciplinary solutions across the energy generation and supply chain.
“We are 100% aligned in our mission to decarbonise not only the transport sector, where BRIGHTBLU’s intelligent EV charging solutions will help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, but the entire energy system,” said Koolen, who is the former CEO of online travel agency Booking.com and was an early investor and former COO of the global ride hailing firm Uber.
BRIGHTBLU believes it is important to attract investors that can bring more than just money to the table. Last year, Sytse Zuidema, former CEO of NewMotion, Jelle Vastert, former global head of charging at Tesla, and E156 Ventures B.V. invested $200,000 in BRIGHTBLU.
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