Momentum Dynamics is preparing for its next funding round, eyeing more than $100 million to fuel a new phase of growth.
The Malvern-based wireless electric vehicle charging company is at a point of “rapid expansion” and needs capital to grow its domestic and international presence, CEO Andy Daga told the Philadelphia Business Journal. Momentum is targeting the last-mile delivery industry for growth, alongside its business in transit systems.
Momentum Dynamics builds wireless, automatic charging pads that can passively charge cars, trucks, buses and other electric vehicles as they drive over or are parked atop them. Most of its sales are in the transit bus market, and the company does business with transit systems in Indianapolis, Martha’s Vineyard and across Europe.
The company has grown rapidly in recent years — so much so that it can’t manufacture its product fast enough to keep up with the sales it’s done domestically and overseas, Daga said. He declined to share revenue or revenue projections.
Momentum last raised capital in 2019, when it secured $17.45 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also that year, it received an investment from the Volvo Group subsidiary Volvo Group Venture Capital for an undisclosed amount.
The company has largely raised money from friends, family and high-net-worth individuals, to the tune of $90 million since 2010, Daga said. Now Momentum is engaging with investment banks to raise another round that Daga expects to top $100 million.
“Now we need to raise money to grow what has already been proven, so what we've done is de-risk the investment proposition,” Daga said.
A significant part of Momentum's growth has happened in Europe, where electric vehicles have been more readily adopted than in the U.S.
The company has a presence in northern Europe, doing business in the United Kingdom, Germany and Nordic countries like Norway, Finland and Sweden, Daga said. Now, Momentum is seeing demand from other parts of Europe, as well as in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and South America.
“We're trying to control that growth so that we don't overspend or overextend ourselves,” Daga said.
Momentum Dynamics largely focuses on commercial and public sector clients, such as transit systems and trucking companies, rather than passenger vehicles. Getting into the consumer market would require Momentum’s technology to be integrated into vehicles while they’re still in the factory, Daga said. But the possibility of bringing its tech to passenger vehicles isn’t that far-fetched, as the company is currently in talks with three "major automakers," according to the CEO.
The company’s presence in the U.S. could also be boosted by President Joe Biden’s recently-announced initiative to have half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. be electric or hybrid in 2030. Electric car sales are expected to boom in the next two decades, with a new report from BloombergNEF estimating that at least two-thirds of car sales will be electric models by 2040.
Daga sees Biden’s initiative as a positive move, and he believes reaching Biden’s target would require public charging rather than solely in-home garage charging. Daga said he’s set to meet with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to discuss electric vehicle charging infrastructure and automated charging.
“We can spend billions of dollars building out the wrong charging system without a strategic plan, and then regret it later,” he said. “Or we can think it through — it doesn't take that much effort to think it through — and put it in the best of America's innovators have to offer today, and live with that for many, many years to come and save money in the process.”
