Tesla considers acquiring German wireless charging startup
Tesla is said to be interested in buying a German specialist for inductive charging technology. According to a media report, the company in question is Wiferion from Freiburg. Apparently, the deal is already close to being finalised.
As the German portal Gründerszene first reported with reference to a commercial register document, the shareholders intend to sell their shares in the company to Tesla International B.V. by means of a purchase agreement. Officially, neither Tesla nor Wiferion have commented on press enquiries. However, the editorial team has received confirmation from two of the start-up’s investors that an exit has taken place. No name was given, but it is said to be an “interesting buyer” – which likely applies to Tesla.
Wiferion was founded in 2016 and develops an inductive charging system for electric vehicles and primarily for robots. According to the Gründerszene report, the charging stations have been on the market since 2018 and have since been sold around 8,000 times to industrial customers, according to the company.
According to the shareholder agreement, the founders still held just under a third of the shares at last count. In recent years, Wiferion had raised more than 15 million euros in several financing rounds. Participants included VC Nordic Alpha Partners from Scandinavia, but also the German medium-sized company Phoenix Contact (via its subsidiary Phoenix Contact Venture Fund), which specialises in connectors.
The purchase price is not known, Gründerszene assumes a mid to high double-digit million amount, “based on Wiferion’s previous financing”. It is also unclear what the future holds for the employees and current customers in the medium to long term.
It is not known exactly why Tesla is interested in the Freiburg start-up. Of course, it could be know-how in inductive charging technology to introduce wireless charging in electric cars. On the other hand, Tesla could use the Wiferion technology in its factories for wireless charging of autonomous transport systems – the fact that Tesla also invests in industrial equipment suppliers has already been shown by the case of Grohmann Engineering from Prüm in the Eifel (today Tesla Automation).
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