Berlin-based EV tech startup Cariqa has announced it has secured €4 million (£3.52 million) in seed funding to develop a new end-to-end payment system for public EV charging.
The oversubscribed seed funding round was co-led by investors Anthemis and Contrarian Ventures, with investors Earth, Anthemis Female Innovators Lab, Golden Egg Check, and Techstars also participating in the funding round.
The funding will be used to develop a simplified, end-to-end payment solution to help solve what Cariqa calls a “fragmented” system of EV charging payment infrastructure across Europe. The company notes that many EV drivers will pay different costs for charging depending on wether they use an EV charging payment card, debit card, or online payment, and notes that EV drivers currently face a “patchwork” of apps, QR codes and cards needed to pay for public EV charging across different networks. To solve this, Cariqa has developed a unified software infrastructure layer which provides clear pricing information that remains the same no matter how users pay.
For chargepoint operators (CPOs), Cariqa provides a simple dashboard that allows them to manage pricing and usage data all in one place.
Commenting on the seed round funding, Mario La Pergola, COO and co-founder of Cariqa, said: “We raised this round on the strength of our team’s execution. We delivered our key pre-seed objectives on time with a lean setup. It’s now time to build on top of the existing platform”.
Tamara Ciullo, CCO and co-founder at Cariqa, agreed, adding: “The EV charging market is still young and that gives us a unique chance to build it right from the ground up. Together, we can create a better, fairer system without relying on unnecessary intermediaries.”
Marin Cauvas, partner at investment firm Anthemis, noted: “Building scalable and resilient payment infrastructure to support EV charging has been totally overlooked. Cariqa’s founding team understands the problem at a systems level, and have built the right technical foundation to fix it.”
Other firms are working to develop more unified systems for EV charging. Among these is Octopus Electroverse, which recently marked a significant milestone as over one million EV chargers around the world can now be accessed through its “one app, one card” system.
Our publisher, Solar Media, will soon launch a brand-new site dedicated to global EV charging infrastructure developments. Called EV Infrastructure News, the site will track market trends, technological breakthroughs and project developments from around the globe. Please visit and follow the official LinkedIn page to learn more.
