Electric vehicle (EV) charging platform Bonnet has raised £920,000 in an equity financing round led by Ascension Ventures.
Investment also came from Imperial College London and APX, with the company also winning an additional £70,000 grant from Innovate UK and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.
This funding is to support the growth of Bonnet’s team – currently at ten – as well as expanding the platform’s chargepoint offering and partnerships with network operators.
This includes the likes of ESB, Shell Recharge, EVBox, Alfa Power, Franklin Energy, Plug-N-Go, Allego, Fastned and char.gy.
Having been founded in 2019, the Bonnet app offers drivers real-time data on charger availability and functionality as well as bundles of cheaper charging they can use across the network, with the ability to roll over what they don’t use into the next month.
Since launch, Bonnet has aggregated charging points in 1,400 locations across the UK, with the company aiming to have integrated with 70% of UK chargepoints by the end of this year.
It is also introducing semi-public and private chargepoints for app users, with this paving the way for domestic chargepoint owners to monetise as part of a semi-public network.
Other similar offerings from the range of EV charging apps available to drivers in the UK include Zap-Map’s Zap-Home feature, which allows drivers to pre-book and pay to use residential chargers, with parking platform JustPark making over 800 EV chargers available through Zap-Home in June.
Bonnet co-founder and CEO Patrick Reich said: “By expanding our offering this year, Bonnet can become the top resource for drivers looking for reliable real-time chargepoint data and simple EV payments: we’re committed to ensuring EV drivers never overpay again.”