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Sydney-based BetterFleet, a company that helps transition vehicle fleets to sustainable technologies, has raised $23.7 million in a Series A funding round as the group looks to scale its existing global operations.
The capital raising was led by US-based investors Aligned Climate Capital, Ecosystem Integrity Fund and Remarkable Ventures Climate.
BetterFleet’s artificial intelligence-enabled electric vehicle (EV) charging management platform currently supports more than 200 vehicle fleets across North America, Europe and Australia, with the latest capital raise aimed at expanding its customer base amid growing demand from corporate and government clients.
“As large, complex fleets transition to new technologies, inexperience, fear and risk aversion often lead to overbuilding,” says Daniel Hilson, the CEO of BetterFleet, which has recently rebranded from EVenergi.
“At the same time, electric fleets require far more sophisticated management software to handle the increased complexity of operating these assets.
“Our goal is to enable more sustainable and productive fleets, allowing the transition to zero emissions solutions, saving our customers billions, while reducing emissions by millions of tonnes annually.”
BetterFleet, which was founded in 2016, helps transit, government, utilities and logistics fleets to make cost-effective transitions to sustainable technologies by enabling them to optimise the selection of hard assets such as charging stations, vehicles and interconnection equipment. The company says this avoids the significant “overbuilding” of infrastructure.
“Digital depot configurations are seamlessly integrated into live operational systems, ensuring that vehicles perform as required, asset utilisation is optimised and incidents can be addressed with minimal downtime,” says the company.
“Working with fleets of up to 20,000 vehicles across thousands of depots, BetterFleet has helped customers save tens of millions of dollars to date.”
Aligned Climate Capital, an asset manager investing exclusively in companies and projects advancing the shift to clean energy, has been impressed by BetterFleet’s role in the electric vehicle transition.
“BetterFleet is the best tool we have seen for fleets that are going electric,” says Peter Davidson, CEO of Aligned Climate Capital.
“They are already working with some of the largest transit agencies around the world, and we’re excited for this new financing to accelerate their growth even further.”
BetterFleet helps facilitate the electrification journey through a process that incudes selecting the right technology as well as route planning and infrastructure installation, while keeping an eye on operational efficiency. The company says these issues are often more complex than most fleet operators can handle in house.
Ecosystem Integrity Fund, a venture capital fund focused on enabling economically competitive solutions to sustainability problems, sees the BetterFleet platform as being at the cutting edge of the EV revolution.
“After making a dozen investments in electric transportation over the past 10 years, we were drawn to BetterFleet’s disciplined focus on enabling the successful electrification and operation of complex mission-critical fleets,” says Geoff Eisenberg, partner at the fund.
“BetterFleet is the clear leader in this space, unmatched in both technology and execution capability while serving some of the most important fleets in the world.”
Remarkable Ventures Climate (RVC) sees the task of electrifying vehicle fleets is an “enormous challenge” that requires careful planning across infrastructure, charging logistics and operational efficiency.
“That’s why we’re excited to invest in BetterFleet,” says Jonathan Axelrod, the co-founder and managing director at RVC.
“Its AI-powered solution allows fleet operators to transition to EVs faster and more effectively, optimising everything from energy consumption and charging schedules to climate impact and cost efficiency.”
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