Charging firm ePower raises €30m in fresh funding

Cork company's largest-ever funding round

Maria Walsh, Investment Analyst Dunport Capital Management; Frank Coombes CFO ePower; John O’Keeffe, CEO ePower, and Francois Rossouw, Associate Director Goodbody, pictured in Dublin as ePower announces the completion of its biggest ever funding round. Photo: Fintan Clarke / Coalesce

Cork EV charging and solar energy firm ePower has raised €30m in fresh funding, its largest-ever funding round.

The company, with offices in Little Island and Dublin,  provides services to the domestic, commercial and public markets. The €30 million of debt and equity has been raised through reinvestment equity from existing shareholders, management and Impax Asset Management, with debt funding from Dunport Capital Management, who are supporting the business for the first time.

Founded in 2019, ePower today has more than 70 staff. The new funding will be used primarily to develop the network of ultra-fast charging in over 200 sites on the island of Ireland. The growth in EV sales is accelerating the demand for charging points.

CEO John O’Keeffe said the funding was a vote of confidence in their growth strategy. "We’ve seen a significant rise in EV adoption in Ireland year on year, and these figures speak for themselves in terms of a public desire to move towards more sustainable energy and transport. We are delighted to again partner with Impax Asset Management and to welcome our new funding partner, Dunport Capital Management.” 

ePower was advised by Goodbody, which provided strategic support throughout the process, helping to secure investment. ePower CFO, Frank Coombes said: "Securing this funding to deploy into assets and key locations will drive ePower's growth and accelerate the rollout of critical EV charging infrastructure”.

In recent years, ePower has signed partnerships with a range of organisations for the roll out of charting infrastructure, including eight locations for the defence forces and four Irish rece courses.

The funding comes asd electric car sales saw another strong increase during August, increasing by nearly 70% compared to the same month last year, new data from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) shows.

In total, there were 7,615 new car registrations last month, up 1% year-on-year. Of this, 2,126 were new electric cars, compared to the 1,256 new registrations in August last year.

In the first eight months of the year, 116,099 new cars were registered, a 3.4% increase, of which 20,656 were electric cars representing a 37% year-on-year increase.