Electra Vehicles, Inc. Closes $3.6 Million Seed Funding Round led by LIFTT S.p.A and BlackBerry Limited

BOSTON, TORINO, Italy and WATERLOO, ON, June 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Electra Vehicles, Inc. closed an oversubscribed Seed Round of $3.6 Million led by the Italian investment group LIFTT S.p.A. and BlackBerry Limited. Other investors include Club degli Investitori, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Prithvi Ventures, Launchpad Venture Group, TiE Boston Angels, and successful Angel investors. These strategic, industry-leading investment groups join the funding round and affirm their support of Electra's flagship product, EVE-Aitm 360 Adaptive Controls, a revolutionary, AI-based software that optimizes the performance of battery systems on any vehicle in the eMobility space.

As electrification continues to be a predominant focus for passenger & commercial vehicle industries with major OEMs, Electra Vehicles is strategically positioned to help these automakers maximize their battery pack investments using their groundbreaking AI software, which can be up to 20% of a vehicle's costs. Electra Vehicles' unique data models are built upon an extensive dataset of 300+ battery and capacitor chemistries. 

Bolstered by EnPowertm, the company's battery selection & simulation software solution, EVE-Aitm 360° Adaptive Controls dynamically manages battery packs based on individual driver and vehicle conditions, thereby increasing lifetime and range and reducing warranty expenses for the suppliers & OEMs. Electra Vehicles has proven their battery expertise while working with major Tier 1's and OEMs who seek to improve their battery pack performance.

Electra takes a software-first approach to solving the EV and battery pack industries' major blockers by targeting State of Health (SOH), charging activity, and driving behavior to adapt the battery pack's needs to all impacting factors. The software is compatible with innovative hardware, next generation cell chemistries, and advanced sensing techniques. The extended range and lifetime benefit passenger vehicle and commercial fleet vehicle owners alike and expedite electric vehicle adoption.

In addition to its growing Boston-based headquarters, Electra will open a strategic branch in Italy's Piedmont Region located in the center of the Italian automotive industry with on-the-ground assistance from LIFTT, Club degli Investitori, and the Foreign Center of Internationalization. The new office location will be in close proximity to cities like Modena and Stuttgart, which are home to leading OEMs in the eMobility space such as Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini, giving Electra the opportunity to expand its customer traction worldwide. 

Additionally, Electra Vehicles is pleased to announce the company is the first investment of the BlackBerry IVY Innovation Fund and welcomes BlackBerry as a strategic investor to support its growth and product portfolio. BlackBerry is a leader in automotive software, with the company's QNX technology used by 23 of the top 25 EV OEMs. Its innovative BlackBerry IVYtm platform, built in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) will enable Electra's EVE-Aitm 360° Adaptive Controls to provide responsive battery management through IVY's edge computing capabilities.  As Electra Vehicles, Inc.'s CEO Fabrizio Martini said: "With allies such as LIFTT, Club degli Investitori, and the BlackBerry IVY team, our innovative AI-based EVE-Aitm software will very rapidly become ubiquitous in the race for electrification in the eMobility sector, just like ADAS systems have become imperative in current vehicles nowadays."

About Electra Vehicles, Inc.

Electra Vehicles is a leading B2B AI software company headquartered in Boston, USA that produces Cloud and onboard software to optimize the performance of any battery system on any vehicle. With initial focus on the eMobility market sector, Electra's technology can apply the same range, lifetime, charging, and safety benefits to other electric sectors like eVTOLs, Aerospace, Robotics, Grid, and more. Electra's Cloud-based EVE-Ai Fleet Analytics and onboard EVE-Ai 360° Adaptive Controls are ideal software tools that provide battery system performance insights, battery conscious driver recommendations, and intelligent charging control strategies based on a continuously updating Adaptive Cell Model, making Electra's EVE-Aitm necessary for all electrified applications worldwide.

Guido Panizza, Head of Project Management, at LIFTT, weighs on their investment in Electra: 

"Electric mobility is now a required technology and it is increasingly evident that battery control software will play a decisive role for the success of this technology. Electra Vehicles' solution represents a decisive step in optimizing the use of batteries both in terms of autonomy and useful life. It is an innovative solution perfectly in line with LIFTT's mission which will support Electra Vehicles in the start-up of activities in Italy, starting from Turin, a city that remains in the automotive sector world excellence."

Vito Giallorenzo, SVP Corporate Development & Chief Operating Officer, IoT at BlackBerry

"With its powerful and innovative AI-Based EVE-Aitm software, Electra Vehicles addresses the unique challenges facing a transportation industry that's at a significant inflection point as OEMs and consumers alike shift their focus from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs). The BlackBerry IVY platform will provide the foundation to help trailblazers like Electra to create truly transformational solutions that make use of real-time vehicle data access. We are thrilled to support Electra's expansion efforts and look forward to working with them to address the electrification pain points that the industry needs to solve like EV range anxiety and battery costs in order to spur mass EV adoption."

Marco Morchio, Electra Vehicles' Champion representing Club degli Investitori: 

"At the intersection of deep tech and sustainability, Electra Vehicles has developed a solution based on Artificial Intelligence that uses an innovative approach to improve the performance of electric batteries by integrating information from the driver, the motors, and the batteries themselves, in the center of the electric mobility system. The level of innovation and its centrality for a segment, the electric one, which is catalyzing a large part of investments in the automotive sector, were the elements that convinced us to invest. "

For Further Information: [email protected] Follow Electra on LinkedIn and Twitter

SOURCE Electra Vehicles, Inc.