Charging and energy management specialist FreeWire Technologies has raised $125 million in new capital from BlackRock Financial Management and other investors, including bp ventures, Riverstone Holdings, Octave Ventures and Daishin Private Equity.
FreeWire will use the new capital to support ambitious growth plans as it accelerates commercial deployments of its battery-integrated EV charging technology and increases manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand in markets such as the UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand. Proceeds will also be used to expand the Company’s talent pool and invest in R&D.
FreeWire recently broke ground on a new 66,000-square-foot R&D facility in Newark, California to develop and manufacture new charging and energy storage product offerings. Construction of the facility is underway, and it will be fully operational by “summer 2022.”
FreeWire’s proprietary battery-integrated charging technology, Boost Charger, is designed to address grid constraints by packaging charging infrastructure, grid infrastructure and energy storage into an integrated, compact solution.
FreeWire is also evolving its software platform. In 2022, the company expects to roll out AMP Pro, which will provide distributed energy management services designed to unlock the value of the battery system through load shifting, demand charge management, resiliency, and more, followed by Charging as a Service in 2023. FreeWire’s long-term objective is to offer a turnkey retail energy service, whereby it owns, manages and optimizes the customer’s utility meter and bill.
FreeWire has installed nearly 5 MWh of energy storage capacity through battery-integrated charging to date, and says it has over 30 MWh booked. The company aims to deploy over 5,000 battery-integrated chargers by 2025.
“The most significant barrier to mass EV adoption is the electric grid, which simply can’t meet the power demand required for ultrafast charging,” said Arcady Sosinov, founder and CEO of FreeWire. “FreeWire’s fully-integrated Boost Charger breaks down this barrier by combining battery technology, power conversion technology and software to enable utilities, retailers, fleets and site owners to scale up ultrafast EV charging quickly without requiring expensive and time-consuming utility upgrades.”
Source: FreeWire Technologies