Pionix secures €5m seed funding for open-source EV charging technology
Pionix GmbH, a German open-source company for EV charging, has announced completing an oversubscribed Seed financing round, raising over €5 million. Pionix plans to use the capital to establish its open-source stack, EVerest, as a global development standard.
Founded in 2021, Pionix says it is on a mission to accelerate developments in the evolving and less standardized field of EV charging. The standards the company is talking about are not charging standards but tools for developers that help address “pain points” such as compatibility issues, resource inefficiency, and innovation barriers. Pionix CEO Dr Möller compared the approach to that of Android, with a well-developed and widely used “core” customized by various companies, promoting standardization, lower costs, and reduced complexity for the entire EV charging business.
Said core is called EVerest by Pionix and is an open-source community project that provides the complete communication and control stack required for charging points, ranging from AC chargers at home to highway DC chargers. Additionally, EVerest forms the foundation of Pionix’s BaseCamp, allowing companies to develop iOS and Android applications. Together with SummitCloud, the platform offers charger control management for end-users. The company also provides the BelayBox, a developer kit with pre-configured hardware – in short, anything anyone needs to develop their charging stations and systems.
Therefore, Pionix enables companies to launch their products based on EVerest and add their software modules and connected hardware to their platforms. This approach allows for customization and innovation while leveraging the standardized core provided by EVerest.
The open-source system is based on Linux, and Pionix is actively involved in the Linux Foundation, specifically LF Energy, which focuses on the power sector.
In today’s announcement of the five million in funding, Pionix also highlighted the importance of open-source projects in the automotive industry and their potential to drive transformative change.
The company counts Peter Mertens, an automotive industry veteran and former CTO of Audi and Volvo, among its advisors, who also emphasized the significance of open-source projects in the automotive sector. He stated, “Open source has the transformative speed and disruptive power to become the game-changer for mobility transformation.” Pionix’s financing round was further proof of this.
Since its establishment, Pionix has developed and distributed applications for various component and charging station manufacturers, including Texas Instruments and Mahle.
The funding round was led by Yabeo Impact AG and Pale blue dot, with participation from Vireo Ventures, MobilityFund, and Axeleo Capital.
0 Comments