Better Place has secured $200 million through a Series C equity financing from a consortium of top-tier investors and partners that include General Electric, UBS, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Ofer Group and Maniv Energy Capital.
Since its founding in 2007, Better Place has raised more than $750 million of equity financing globally in an economic climate where investors continue to seek a competitive alternative to oil, giving it a valuation of $2.25 billion.
Better Place will use the proceeds to expand into Western Europe while it continues to advance the company’s deployment projects in Northern California, Southern China, Japan, Ontario, Canada, and Hawaii.
The company said it will launch its initial commercial service in Israel and Denmark early next year and has already announced a series of consumer offerings for electric mobility services that are competitive with gasoline-based cars. Better Place will begin initial commercial service in the second quarter of 2012 in Australia, starting in Canberra.
By the end of the year, Better Place will have demonstrated its solution across four continents including locations in Europe, the Middle East, the U.S., Australia, China and Japan, with each project providing unique insights into these markets.
With the Series C financing, Better Place will expand its geographic footprint beyond Denmark and further into Western Europe where government policy supporting electric cars and interest in public / private partnership are the strongest.
The company, which currently has more than 100 employees in Europe, will leverage its Danish operations, its European Commission-approved projects, and its market-leading ecosystem of partners as the building blocks for expanding into Western Europe. In September, Better Place opened an office in Paris to serve as its European headquarters, which it will use as a base for attracting talent, investors, and partners.
