Several electric vehicle startups, including Canoo, Fisker Inc., Lordstown Motors and Nikola Corp., have gone public this year by merging with a special purpose acquisition company. Now, an electric vehicle charging company is joining the growing list of SPACs.
ChargePoint, an electric vehicle charging network, has struck a deal to merge with special-purpose acquisition company Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation, with a market valuation of $2.4 billion. ChargePoint will continue to be led by President and CEO Pasquale Romano and the existing management team. The combined company will be named ChargePoint Holdings Inc. and will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company expects the transaction will close by the end of the year.
ChargePoint said it was able to raise $225 million in private investment in public equity, or PIPE, led by institutional investors including Baillie Gifford and funds managed by Neuberger Berman Alternatives Advisors. ChargePoint will have about $683 million in cash. The cash proceeds raised in the transaction will be used to repay debt, fund operations, support growth and for general corporate purposes.
“The EV charging industry is accelerating and it is expected that charging infrastructure investment will be $190 billion by 2030,” Switchback CEO, CFO and director Scott McNeill said in a statement, adding that ChargePoint is well positioned to deliver the infrastructure that will be needed.
ChargePoint designs, develops and manufactures hardware and accompanying software, as well as a cloud subscription platform, for electric vehicles. The company might be best known for its branded public and semi-public charging spots that consumers use to charge their personal electric cars and SUVs, as well as its home chargers. However, ChargePoint also has a commercial-focused business that provides hardware and software to help fleet operators manage their delivery vans, buses and cars. In all, the company has more than 115,000 charging spots globally. ChargePoint also offers access to an additional 133,000 public places to charge through network roaming integrations across North America and Europe.
The company, which was founded in 2007, said it plans to use this new capital to expanding North America and Europe, improve its technology portfolio and significantly scale its commercial, fleet and residential businesses.
The SPAC merger comes just a month after ChargePoint raised $127 million in funding from a mix of existing investors from the oil and gas, utilities and venture industries, including American Electric Power, Chevron Technology Ventures, Clearvision and Quantum Energy Partners.