A Cincinnati startup building out a high-profile network of charging stations for electric cars is raising millions to help fuel its growth.
Downtown-based Electrada, which installs, owns and operates electric vehicle charging stations, has raised more than $11.9 million as part of a total equity offering worth $20 million, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Electrada did not respond to an email requesting comment; federal regulations do restrict publicity when companies are actively raising funds.
In an April interview with Cincy Inno, Electrada CEO Kevin Kushman said the startup was poised for fast growth. The number of electric vehicles on the road in the U.S. is expected to hit 18.7 million by 2030, and an estimated 9.6 million electric vehicle charging stations are needed to accommodate them.
Electrada, which has made its mark by installing stations in high-profile locations like Findlay Market and the Cincinnati Zoo, expects to have more than 300 charging stations by the end of 2021, Kushman said. In the company’s first five years, he said that number will hit 5,000.
But EV charging station installs are costly. It takes anywhere from $4,000 to $17,000 to fully equip a site.
In March, Electrada received a $180,000 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to install 60 charging stations; otherwise the company had previously declined to disclose how much funding it had raised prior to its launch. The firm’s original investors were all from Ohio, Kushman said.
Per its recent SEC filing, the company's directors now include several well-known Cincinnati executives and a pair of investors associated with the famed BlackRock:
- Dan Neyer, president and CEO of Neyer Properties, who had joined Electra’s board last May.
- Tim Donovan, Andrew Ritch and Nahaliel Kanfer with Donovan Energy, a downtown-based clean energy development and finance company.
- Patrick Bydume and Martin Torres, members of the renewable power team within BlackRock’s Real Assets group, part of the New York-based global asset management firm.
Electrada’s team, overall, includes experts in energy, emerging grid technology, data science and customer service, including Kushman, the former president of downtown-based Integral Analytics, who has more than 20 years in the energy tech and utility space; and Irina Filippova, Electrada’s chief operating officer, who launched BP’s high-profile Helios House in Los Angeles, the county’s first LEED-certified gas station, in 2007.
Ben Rogers, a seasoned executive within the clean energy sector, is the most recent addition. He joined Electrada in June as chief development officer. Rogers, per LinkedIn, currently serves as a venture partner at Braemar Energy Ventures in New York City.
Prior, Rogers was the co-founder of Broadscale Group, an investment firm focused on the power sector. He has been a senior advisor to the likes of Duke Energy and Workhorse Group (Nasdaq: WKHS), a Loveland-based all-electric truck manufacturer.
