Loop Global Inc., an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company based in El Segundo, announced last week the completion of a $40 million series A-1 funding round.
The round was co-led by Fifth Wall Climate, a venture capital firm focused on technology for the real estate industry, and Agility Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Agility, a supply chain services company. Keystone National Group, a private credit firm, provided Loop with an additional $20 million credit facility, bringing the company’s total funding to $60 million.
Loop will use the funds to expand its U.S. operations.
“We have a lot of plans to enter new markets as well as to continue to develop cutting-edge hardware and software products,” said Dustin Cavanaugh, co-founder and chief executive of Loop. “We always want to stay ahead of our competition, and then we also plan to utilize the capital for supplementing our existing manufacturing capabilities, as well as potentially some strategic acquisitions that we know will continue to help us round out our comprehensive solution for our customers.”
According to the Edison Electric Institute, an association that represents investor-owned electric companies, the number of EVs on U.S. roads is projected to reach 26.4 million in 2030, up from the 18.7 million projected in a 2018 report.
“It’s no secret that electric vehicles are the future of the transportation sector,” said Peter Gajdoš, Fifth Wall partner and co-lead of its climate team. “Loop’s vision is to completely transform the delivery of turnkey EV charging networks through an end-to-end, cost-effective solution which enables property owners to passively offer EV charging services to their tenants, employees or customers.”
Because of that, the demand for affordable and reliable EV charging infrastructure is extremely high, according to Loop.
“We recognized that over the next 10 years there’s going to be a mass migration from gas-powered vehicles to battery electric vehicles, but ultimately, the biggest challenge that’s going to face widespread adoption is going to be access to affordable and community charging,” Cavanaugh said.
Cavanaugh said 80% of EV drivers prefer to charge at home or at work. Loop has four different charging products designed for passive charging at home, work or on the go.
“Basically, they want to ditch the gas station model where they have to go out of their way to fuel and would rather do it while they’re already spending time out during their normal daily routine,” Cavanaugh said. “We focused a lot of our initial business development efforts in that (passive charging) market, so apartment complexes, hotels, hospitals, office buildings, where we know a lot of busy drivers are passively operating throughout the day.”
Loop sells its products to property owners through distributors and resellers. It makes its primary revenue from hardware sales and a smaller portion from ongoing services, such as a small percentage for every charge session.
