Participated · Seed · Jul 2024

itselectric is a Brooklyn-based company building curbside electric vehicle charging infrastructure and offering a UL-certified detachable cable charger. The company manages installation, operation, and maintenance of chargers at no cost to municipalities or building owners. Through partnerships with cities and property owners, itselectric provides drivers charging options while offering property owners monthly passive income. The startup positions its service to help cities meet decarbonization targets and actively reduce carbon emissions. It plans deployments across seven U.S. cities in 2024, including Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Jersey City, and San Francisco. Financially, the company has raised a total of $11.8M to date following its recent seed round. itselectric builds urban networks of Level 2 curbside EV charging posts and partners with cities to install, operate, and maintain chargers at no cost to cities or host property owners. The company’s model lets property owners earn passive income while avoiding the infrastructure upgrades typically required for on-street charging. It aims to help cities meet carbon reduction targets and reduce capital expenditure. Led by CEO Nathan King and COO Tiya Gordon, itselectric has a fully functioning prototype described as a minimum viable product (MVP). The company plans to use recent funding to move that prototype to a certified market-ready product (MRP) for on-street deployments across the U.S. Financially, itselectric completed a $2.2M pre-seed financing to support product certification and deployment efforts.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2023

BlocPower, founded in 2014 and led by CEO Donnel Baird, is an NYC-based climate technology company that develops software and financing to decarbonize buildings. Its core product is the proprietary BlocMaps SaaS analytics platform and associated software used for analysis, leasing, project management, and monitoring of clean energy projects. The company has completed energy projects in more than 5,000 apartments, homes, houses of worship and commercial buildings and reports 4,000% revenue growth since its 2020 Series A. BlocPower plans to use the new capital to further develop BlocMaps, expand financing and administrative capabilities, and broaden its Civilian Climate Corps green workforce initiative. The Civilian Climate Corps trains and hires at-risk individuals and has secured city contracts including a two-year, $108m NYC award and an earlier $37m contract; the company opened training facilities in Brooklyn and the Bronx. To date BlocPower has raised over $250m and is deploying its software to support city-scale decarbonization projects in multiple U.S. cities. BlocPower develops and deploys clean-energy retrofits for urban, small- and medium-sized buildings using proprietary software for analysis, leasing, project management and monitoring. Its machine-learning platform identifies high-impact retrofits and the company uses cloud and IoT to gather data and remotely monitor energy consumption. As a Public Benefit Corporation, BlocPower partners with utilities, government agencies and building owners to retrofit unhealthy, energy-wasting buildings. It created an innovative financing solution that enables building owners to implement energy-efficiency improvements with no out-of-pocket cost. BlocPower has completed retrofits in more than 1,000 buildings in New York City and has projects underway in 24 cities, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Oakland. The company plans to expand and scale its inner-city energy retrofit projects across the U.S., create jobs, and will soon offer Environmental Justice Impact Green Bonds to institutional investors to help finance future projects.

Led · Series A · May 2022

SparkCharge, founded in 2018 by CEO Joshua Aviv, offers charging-as-a-service that lets fleets buy electricity per kilowatt-hour while SparkCharge delivers and operates charging (including off-grid mobile chargers). The company pivoted from consumer-focused mobile EV charging and previously partnered with AllState to assist stranded EV drivers. Its service includes drop-off equipment or “white glove” full-service charging and can transition customers to permanent depot infrastructure as operations grow. SparkCharge has expanded its operations across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, and Mexico, and says 95% of customers use its off-grid chargers. The startup deploys battery- or generator-powered mobile chargers that can run on propane, natural gas, or hydrogen, and targets high-volume fleet sites such as ports, railheads, and manufacturers. Typical pricing cited is roughly $0.35–$0.60 per kilowatt-hour, and the company emphasizes avoiding grid interconnection delays and construction costs for customers. SparkCharge operates an on-demand EV charging delivery service that uses stackable Roadie portable EV batteries to provide Level 3 DC fast charging. Each Roadie battery provides 3.5 Kwh usable energy, stackable batteries can deliver up to 72 miles of range, and the system is compatible with Tesla, CSS, and CHAdeMo. Customers request charges via the Currently app to have their vehicles charged wherever and whenever they want. The service launched in four cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and Dallas) and is now expanding into 12 additional California cities, including Huntington Beach, Irvine, Oakland, and others. SparkCharge reports it has already provided over 250,000 miles of range and says it is on track to provide millions this year. The company plans to scale into larger and underserved markets using new funding to expand its Currently app footprint. SparkCharge is a Somerville, Mass.-based mobile electric vehicle charging network led by CEO and founder Josh Aviv. The company makes the Roadie Charging System, a portable, modular solution that enables DC fast charging anywhere regardless of infrastructure, and operates the Currently app for on-demand EV power delivery. Currently has been launched in four cities and has delivered over 100,000 miles of range to EV owners; the app is on track to deliver millions of miles this year and to prevent over 85 tons of CO2 pollution. Since early 2022 the company has secured partnerships and programs with global brands including Kia Motors, Hertz, and Uber that leverage its mobile charging technology. SparkCharge plans to deploy more solutions through the Currently app and to expand into over 20 additional markets. The company intends to use the new funds to expand market presence and develop new mobile charging products. SparkCharge has developed the Roadie, a 120 kW portable fast charger that can be delivered on demand through a network of partners. The Roadie lets customers request between roughly 50 and 100 miles of charge via an app, with on‑demand charges costing about $0.50 per mile and minimum top‑ups around $10. SparkCharge distributes the units through partners (for example Spiffy) and has a partnership with AllState, which has ordered roughly 20 portable chargers and will deploy the service in four cities. The company envisions independent workers running on‑demand charging as a gig‑economy business and offers equipment access for about $450 per month to enable that model. SparkCharge is based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and founder Joshua Aviv began working on the business while a student at Syracuse University. The company is bringing the Roadie to market alongside a platform for distribution and a network of service providers.