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Brisbane-based startup EVOS has secured $5 million from existing investors ahead of the launch of its consumer-grade home charger for electric vehicles (EV) this month, building on its charging solutions to date which have focused primarily on EV fleet operators.
The news comes just over a year after EVOS installed its fleet home 22 AC charger at Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, and two years after it raised $1.7 million in seed funding with support from a major automotive manufacturer and an ASX100 listed company.
The investment will help the company bring new technologies to market for "a number of EV charging use cases" to address challenges for EV fleet operators, homeowners and renters.
"This investment validates all the hard work the team has put in since we launched our company, and it shows the belief our investors have in a home-grown manufacturer being able to deliver game-changing offerings for Australians," says CEO Marcelo Salgado, who founded EVOS in 2020 with chief experience & innovation officer Seshan Weeratunga and chief technology officer Chris Crossman.
"Since launching, we’ve unveiled our first charger, the Fleet Home 22 AC Charger and our patented Smart Start solution to help fleet and EV owners simplify and reduce the cost of charging.
"We now have a number of new products on the roadmap and this investment will help bring them to market much more quickly."
A new home charger, to be launched in Brisbane on July 19, will be the first cab off the rank for the company.
Since its 2021 seed round, EVOS as added 22 employees to its manufacturing, sales and engineering departments, while launching its game-changing products.
"We’ve seen tremendous growth not just within our team but the opportunities for electric vehicles in Australia," says Crossman.
"Some of the barriers to EV adoption have gone down and we’re seeing pick-up in sales locally – yet the issue holding EVs back from being the logical and only next vehicle purchase for many people here is the availability of charging infrastructure suited to their requirements.
"It’s a challenge we’re looking to address with each solution we bring to market."
The EVOS Fleet Home22 AC Charger was the first Australian-made home charger to be made available on the market. It was designed to help fleet businesses better manage costs and energy, while being easily installable and uninstalled and to simplify the charging experience for drivers.
Meanwhile, the startup's energy management solution - the technology backbone of each of EVOS’ chargers – can instinctively choose the ideal idle time for the charger to charge the vehicle, whether its overnight in non-peak periods or during business hours, for instance. It can also control charge rate, speed and power to ensure owners can manage their energy output, thus reducing the costs of charging at home as much as possible.
“The investment is going to help us build on these market-leading technologies and allow us to deliver our technology roadmap,” says Weeratunga.
"We aim to make everything simple to use, from installation to charging and energy management. We take this ideal into every product we create, and the result is a user experience that is seamless."
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