Fastned raises €75 million strategic investment

Fastned has received a strategic investment of €75 million in a private placement from Schroders Capital to expand its European fast-charging network further.

The private placement of 2,032,520 new depositary receipts represents the same number of new ordinary shares in the company’s capital. Issued at 36.90 euros each and placed with Schroders Capital, the investment corresponds to a shareholding of 10.61 per cent.

“I’m very pleased to welcome Schroders Capital as a long-term investor to Fastned,” said Michiel Langezaal, CEO of Fastned. “This not only provides Fastned with the funding to continue to roll out our network, enabling us to make the next big step towards reaching our goal of 1,000 stations before 2030. It also marks the start of a new phase with Schroders Capital’s large institutional sustainable infrastructure fund coming on board as an anchor investor, taking a long-term perspective on our business and industry, and being willing to support our growth plans actively.”

The Dutch company recently updated its business, delivering solid figures for Q3/22. Fastned now operates more than 1,000 chargers powering the revenue increase. Revenue related to charging grew by 217% in the third quarter of 2022, almost three times as much as in the third quarter of last year. This puts the annualised revenue run-rate above 40 million euros, so Fastned.

In addition to opening new stations, Fastned also expanded existing stations to prepare for growing demand. The average number of chargers per station increased to 4.7 at the end of Q3 2022, compared to 3.8 in the same period the previous year. The company acquired 33 new locations this year and runs 359 sites. Currently, 20 sites are under construction.

“I’m proud to say that we now have more than one thousand chargers in operation across the six countries we’re active in,” commented Langezaal. “Our team is working harder than ever to open more stations: we currently have twenty sites under construction, that’s four times more than at any point in our history.”

The volume of energy supplied rose by 149 per cent to 13.7 GWh, while the number of charging processes “only” increased by 111 per cent. In other words, more electricity was charged on average during each charging process, reflecting the trend towards e-cars with larger batteries.

Fastned, like other companies, has raised tariffs this year due to increasing energy costs. The CEO said they “have had to increase our prices to continue running a sustainable business and to ensure we can continue expanding our network. When wholesale energy prices stabilise at lower levels, we hope we can adjust our prices downwards again.”

fastnedcharging.com (investment), fastnedcharging.com (business figures)