A Lowell startup building electric propulsion systems and motors for everything from cars to drones to pool pumps has raised $15 million in Series A financing.
The company, ePropelled, has expanded rapidly since its founding in 2018, adding a testing center in New Hampshire and facilities in the U.K. and India.
Founder Nick Grewal, a serial entrepreneur who in 1996 sold his internet company Nashoba Networks to Cisco for $100 million, was inspired to work on the problem of electric motors after buying his first electric car.
“I started looking at the technology and said, ‘Boy, we can do a better job than this,” Grewal said in an interview. “I didn’t want to build cars, but I love the idea of being Intel inside a car. All our propulsion systems, all the hardware, software, motors.”
ePropelled has grown to around 70 employees and is working on lining up deals to provide its motors to vehicle manufacturers, after using an unlikely market — green swimming pool pumps — as a revenue launchpad.
“We found there was a huge market for efficient pumps like ours, which is 97, 98% efficient,” Grewal said. That market has been boosted by laws in Europe and elsewhere requiring a minimum efficiency for those motors, and he said the company also wants to sell them for heat and ventilation.
Their efficiency, especially compared to older induction electric motors, is what makes ePropelled’s motors standout in general, said the founder.
“There are not that many companies in the world that are making motors like us,” Grewal said. “I would put us at the leading edge of this new wave of very efficient electric machines.”
The company’s leadership team also includes Chief Technology Officer Nabeel Shirazee, who has spent decades working on electric motors, and head of EV strategy David Hudson, an automotive industry leader who has worked for and with manufacturers such as Jaguar, Ford and Aston Martin.
With the funds, the company plans to build out sales channels and marketing, as well as its supply chain and operations. “I think we're ready for the next phase,” said Grewal.
