French start-up Bump has signed a multi-year financing partnership with DFF Capital Partners to deploy more charging stations for electric vehicles and double overall growth.
It is a $180 million Equity and Equity Agreement that will be phased in from 2022 to 2030. Yesterday, ZePlug announced a major investment – but ZePlug will focus on a different market, working with residential and office buildings.
Today’s news is particularly significant because Bump operates on a capital-intensive business model. The company has already created 300 charging stations and plans to ship another 2,000 charging stations by the end of 2023.
They raise funds and manage the installation of new charging stations at no upfront cost to their partners. After that, the company will control maintenance and operation. Then it is reduced on the kWh, which covers the investment costs in stages and generates some income for the company.
Like solar panels, a charging station can take 5, 10 or 15 years before it becomes profitable. It is an infrastructure company, which means it is a long-term business.
Bump has two types of customers. It works in partnership with retailers, shopping malls, hotels and various companies that own parking lots to open charging stations for anyone who needs a charging station.
It also works with logistics companies and other B2B customers who need to convert to electric vehicles. They get their own charging stations for their Bump-powered vehicles. Clients include StarService, TopChrono, Stuart, Europcar, Zity, Bolt and Marcel.
“You can buy a server and a floppy disk, or you can pay a monthly subscription per user,” says co-founder and CEO François Oudot.
And it’s true that switching to electric vehicles is costly. You have to buy new cars and trucks – electric vehicles are more expensive than gas vehicles. Then you have to pay a construction company to install the charging stations.
Vehicles should not be the main investment for logistics companies. Many companies choose to lease cars, and pay a small fee to charge their vehicles if they do nothing to manage their charging stations.
Bump itself works with large construction companies to install charging stations. They have their own software stack and a team that can remotely monitor charging stations. If it’s a hardware problem, third-party companies can be contacted 24/7 if you have to physically go there to fix something.
With today’s new funding, Bump plans to open 25,000 charging stations by 2030. The startup also employs a hundred people.
Image Credits: Swelling
