Electric vehicle (EV) sharing schemes are a type of car rental that allows users to rent an electric vehicle for a limited amount of time.
The electric mobility sector is still relatively new, and it has the potential to grow in a variety of ways, thanks to a variety of revenue streams. EV sharing is a tool that allows the local community to use an alternate mode of transportation for daily or occasional travel, hence reducing the number of private vehicles in the city.
As local regulators increasingly prohibit polluting automobiles and an ever-increasing selection of electric car models become available, car-sharing in Europe is going electric. The electrification trend in Europe is now centred in a few hotspots. The largest electric car-sharing fleets in Europe are in Paris and Madrid.
Aiming to score with the first mover advantage, SPARK Technologies, a Lithuania-based electric car-sharing firm, revealed that it has inked a €30M capital commitment agreement with GEM Global Yield LLC SCS, a Luxembourg-based private, alternative investment organisation. In addition to that, the company intends to go public.
The funds raised will allow SPARK Technologies to grow into new EU markets, increase its customer base and fleet size, and further enhance its unique software solutions.
Nitty gritties of agreement
GEM will provide SPARK with a share subscription facility of up to €30M for a 36-month period following the public listing of SPARK Technologies shares, according to the conditions of the agreement.
SPARK will retain discretion over the timing and, within certain conditions, the maximum amount of each individual withdrawal under this facility, and there will be no minimum drawdown requirement.
As part of the agreement, the Lithuanian company will provide GEM warrants to purchase up to 4% of SPARK’s total equity interests on public listing for a period of three years following the public listing of SPARK’s common stock.
“The partnership with GEM helps ensure money for us to continue doubling our annual growth as we increase our electric car fleet and enter new cities.” SPARK is now well-positioned as the firm prepares to scale up its development, thanks to the certainty of finance that comes with listing on a major European public stock market,” says Nerijus Dagilis, CEO and Chairman of SPARK Technologies.
SPARK Technologies: Innovation in EV sharing
SPARK Technologies, based in Sofia, Lithuania, is an electric car-sharing firm that intends to reduce its carbon footprint by delivering zero-emission affordable transportation in key European cities.
Founded in 2015 by Nerijus Dagilis and Justin Ott, the company competes with Zity, Emov, Share Now, Free2Move and Moov’in.
Currently, the platform has a fleet of 1,500 vehicles that can be shared using SPARK mobile applications in Bucharest, Sofia, Plovdiv, and Vilnius. As of today, the company has more than 250,000 customers.
Global Emerging Markets is a $3.4B alternative investment organisation that oversees a wide variety of emerging market investment vehicles and has executed over 480 deals in 70 countries. The firm has offices in Paris, New York, and Nassau, Bahamas (Bahamas).
