Joint UCD and Imperial College EV spin-out raises €3.5m in first seed funding round
Posted 11 July, 2023
Electric vehicle charging start-up (opens in a new window)Go Eve has received €3.5 million in seed funding, a first for the University College Dublin and (opens in a new window)Imperial College London spin-out.
The company will use the success of this initial financial backing to secure its supply chains and significantly scale production, as well as install the first of its ‘DockChain’ system on sites over the summer.
Investors in the funding round included The Pearl Family Office; Carter Gem; Automotive Ventures Inc.; Kero Development Partners and Cur8 Capital.
“Go Eve offers a technology that can transform EV charging. For electric vehicles (EVs) to replace fossil-fuel cars, charging needs to be faster, lower cost, more widely available and most efficiently use available grid capacity,” said Hugh Sheehy, Go Eve CEO.
“Our technology does all these things, which is why we see a future with rapid charging in every space.”
Adding: “We have reliable manufacturing partners who can rapidly scale cable and microchip production to meet our expected growth. We currently have capacity for hundreds of installations now – we’re prepared for thousands next year. We anticipate strong pickup for DockChain, particularly for fleet operators and in destination car parks.”
Go Eve was co-founded by Hugh Sheehy, John Goodbody, Professor Robert Shorten, Dr Pietro Ferraro and Andrew Cullen in 2021, and the company has offices at NovaUCD, in Dublin and in London.
Its pioneering charge technology was originally invented by a team of academics and researchers led by Professor Shorten at the UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, before his subsequently move to the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial where the technology was further advanced by him and his team.
The company’s ‘DockChain’ system aims to make high-power DC charging cost-competitive with lower-power AC charging options by extending the reach of single rapid chargers to service multiple parking spaces.
Current EV charging technology only allows for one or two EVs to access a fast-charging station at a time.
This creates “down time”, wasted charging potential as vehicles are moved on and off the charger. Go Eve’s technology solves this problem by extending the reach of a single rapid DC charger to a daisy-chain of low-cost charging terminals.
Go Eve’s software then intelligently manages a virtual queue, flowing high power to each individual connected EV, scheduling each in turn.
The company completed a successful pilot installation at the Imperial campus last November.
“Given the importance of climate action and sustainability it is fantastic to see Go Eve close this £3 million seed funding round to enable it to take the next steps in bringing its innovation electric charging solution to market,” said Tom Flanagan, Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation.
“We are delighted to continue to collaborate with our colleagues in Imperial College London as we support Go Eve in commercialising its exciting DockChain technology which has potential to make a significant impact on how EVs are charged on the global stage.”
“Go Eve is another great example of an Imperial start-up that has the potential to deliver a strong return on investment while tackling the challenges of climate and environmental change,” added Dr James Groves, Head of Investment Services at Imperial, which is a shareholder in the company.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
