Connected Kerb has received £65 million worth of backing from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and Aviva Investors to accelerate the rollout of its on-street EV charging network.
This new funding – comprising £55 million from NWF and a further £10 million from Aviva – aims to support Connected Kerb’s ambition of expanding to 40,000 sockets, up from its existing 9,000 by the end of 2024.
The funding was announced on the same day everyone was concentrating on the UK Government’s backing of a third runway at Heathrow, but unlike that announcement, which will largely benefit those in and around London, bolstering Connected Kerb’s business could have a wide impact for those across the UK.
While a transition to electric vehicles has been relatively easy for those who have access to off-street parking, those who live in terraced houses without driveways or apartment blocks, have often been relying on either rapid chargers, or slower chargers far from their homes. In fact, the distinction between drivers with private charging and those reliant on public infrastructure continues to grow, with 55% of urban dwellings lacking off-street parking.
Connected Kerb has been trying a different approach – targeting its rollout away from busy ‘hubs’, such as shopping centres and pubs, and instead installing EV chargers kerbside in residential areas across the country.
So far, the company’s network stretches all the way from the South West in Plymouth to Ellon in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. That means the new investment could have the potential to ‘level up’ the regional divide that plagues the EV charging market in the UK, and the company has its sights set on providing the nation’s largest network of public chargers by the end of 2025.
Chris Pateman-Jones, Connected Kerb CEO, commented, “This investment combines Connected Kerb’s proven hardware and advanced software infrastructure with the financial resources of NWF and Aviva to deploy public charging at scale, to all corners of the UK. This is a game-changing investment that will give individuals and businesses the confidence to make the switch to driving electric, dramatically reducing carbon emissions and air pollution. We are delighted to have such high profile investors who are deeply aligned with our sustainability and ethical goals.”
John Flint, National Wealth Fund CEO, added, “To get to net zero we need to make it as easy as possible for people to change the way they do things. Providing convenient and reliable on-street charging is key to helping those without driveways make the switch to electric vehicles. Our investment in Connected Kerb will support one of the UK’s leading public charge point operators to continue its network expansion and deploy this much-needed EV charging infrastructure at pace and at scale to homes and businesses across the country.”