Monta, a platform for the management of electric vehicle charging, is planning to expand in the UK after raising €30 million.
The company has a UK office in Hammersmith, London with seven employees focused on sales, technical support and marketing.
“In just over a year we’ve signed several big partnerships with UK charge point manufacturers and installers, and a strong central team supports our UK team from Copenhagen and the rest of Europe,” Monta co-founder and CEO Casper Rasmussen tells BusinessCloud.
“Although we only opened for business in the UK in July 2021, it’s rapidly become one of our biggest growth markets. The UK is one of the leading innovators of electric vehicle technology, and we’re planning big things in the country in the foreseeable future.”
While 2021 European EV sales increased by more than 65% compared to 2020, the lack of EV charging infrastructure is still one of the biggest hurdles to mass adoption.
Not only do nearly 3,000 new public charge points need to be built each week for Europe to reach its target of operating one million charge points by 2025, but the customer experience is often hampered by a highly fragmented ecosystem of charge point operators and owners.
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Monta is delivering an all-in-one EV charging platform that simplifies and streamlines deployment, use and management of EV charging infrastructure.
Charge point owners have full visibility into charge point use, pricing, access, and transactions. For EV drivers, Monta provides reservation, virtual queuing, and payment features under one platform as well as access to public charge points.
“The UK has strong ambitions around decarbonising transport, but it currently lacks government policy support to really help grow EV adoption,” continues Rasmussen.
“In terms of innovation, accessibility, and quantity, the charging infrastructure in the UK is far behind where it needs to be to support the ambition of banning the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered vehicles by 2030.
“To help speed things along, we’re aiming to make driving an EV easier and more attractive to the UK by providing technology-led charging solutions. Our charging platform helps drivers charge at home, at work, and on the go using just one app rather than the 10 different ones drivers currently have to rummage through.
“We’re also helping installers and site owners manage their charge points as an asset, giving them the flexibility to monetise, measure, and share with EV owners.
“The UK is an important growth market to Monta and the wider EV industry which we’re excited to support long in the future.”
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The Series A+ round was led by Energize Ventures, a leading global investment manager accelerating digital innovation for energy and sustainability, with participation from returning investors Creandum, Pale Blue Dot, byFounders, and Headline.
It will leverage the additional investment to open up new markets including North America, while consolidating its position in the UK, Scandinavia and Germany, all of which have legislation in place slated to ban new ICE vehicle sales by 2025, 2030, and 2035 respectively.
To further support the needs of the EU and the US – which has set a goal for 50% of its car sales to be EVs by 2030 – Monta will ramp up its product innovations and develop critical features to help EV drivers and charge point owners seamlessly navigate the industry.
Looking further ahead, Monta seeks to expand its product development to include grid management services amid challenges as more EVs hit the roads.
Ultimately, the company expects to facilitate the sale of excess power back to the grid (V2G), manage interoperability with other zero carbon technologies (V2H, V2X), aid in the creation of local energy markets, and empower end users with ownership over their energy consumption.
“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,” said Rasmussen.
“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.”