Better Place is a company most widely known for their batter swapping technique. The battery swapping idea allows electric vehicles with depleted batteries to pull into the battery swapping station and change out their batteries for fresh ones. The idea does draw some criticism from those who note that it is not feasible on a large scale. Regardless of what the critics may say, Better Place is set in their ideas and CEO Shai Agassi proudly talks about the company's future plans.
Agassi makes headlines quite often and has brought a lot of media coverage to the company and that's probably a good things. With media coverage, a company becomes well known and has a better chance of securing much needed funds and that is exactly what Better Place is looking to do.
Recent investments into the company have been rewarding. London based banking and finance giant HSBC has signed on to support Better Place with funding over $100 million. Additional funds accounting for a total of over $200 million recently came in from numerous companies including Morgan Stanley Investment, Lazard Asset Management and Vantage Point Venture Partners.
For Better Place, this series of funds is referred to as Series B financing. In total, Series B financing brought in $350 million for the company. Combined with previous early investments into the company which now brings the total to over $800 million in funds. The company is said to be valued at $1.25 billion, a hefty number for a three year old start-up.
Better Place has displayed fully operational batter swapping stations and is looking to move forward with plans for a full roll-out of its system soon. In additional to funds already brought in, it's anticipated that the company will still need to raise billions more soon.
Renault has taken a strong interest in the battery swapping idea as have other automakers. With additional funds, Better Place could make battery swapping a success.
Source: Edmunds.com
