Volta Trucks, a leading and disruptive full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has announced the successful conclusion of its Series B funding round, with €37 million secured in new capital.
It follows the debut of the Volta Zero at ITT Hub 2021, at Farnborough, in July (pictured).
Key points:
- Volta Trucks confirms successful Series B funding round with a total capital raise of €37 million into the company.
- Existing investor, New York-based Luxor Capital Group, LP, leads the funding round, further reinforcing their confidence in the Volta Trucks journey.
- Funding round also saw the participation of strategic partners such as Proterra and Agility, who showed strong conviction in the Volta Trucks story and a common vision for the future.
- Pre-orders for the Volta Zero now exceed 2,500 vehicles, with an order value of more than €600m, having doubled in the past three months.
The funding round was led by Luxor Capital with existing investors extending their investments and strategic partners joining the Volta Trucks journey, showing clear belief in the company’s future success, and endorsement of its strategy and potential.
Luxor Capital manages more than $8 billion in assets and has made investments into many automotive and alternative energy companies.
As a further sign of confidence, the company’s original seed investor and participant in the Series A round, Byggmästare Anders J Ahlström of Stockholm, added to its investment in Volta Trucks. They were also joined by strategic partners and first-time investor, Proterra, which was selected as battery supplier for the Volta Zero.
Agility, a leading provider of supply chain services, innovation and investment, also became a first-time investor in Volta Trucks. Agility’s Volta investment is part of its broader strategy of investing in supply chain sustainability and resilience. Agility is focused on partnerships with companies that are developing cleaner commercial vehicles, mass-transit alternatives, freight marketplaces, and digital load-matching platforms – all intended to reduce CO2 emissions, congestion and fuel use.
“Volta Trucks and Agility share a vision of a zero-emissions future and a determination to make it happen sooner rather than later,” said Agility CEO Tarek Sultan.
In the short term, the positive outcome of the funding round will provide Volta Trucks with the means to accelerate its expansion with the development of Pilot Fleet vehicles that will be evaluated by customers in London and Paris in mid-2022, in advance of the start of full-scale production by the end of 2022. Looking ahead, it will also help facilitate the company’s Road-to-Zero Emissions strategy that sees four Volta Zero models developed and offered in European and US markets, with over 27,000 vehicles expected to be sold by 2025.
After recently signing a manufacturing agreement with Steyr Automotive, Volta Trucks has also confirmed positive updates to its order book following the conclusion of several successful customer engagements. Pre-orders for the Volta Zero have now swelled to exceed 2,500 vehicles with an order value of over €600 million, which has doubled in the past three months.
Confirming the new investment, Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks, said; “The successful conclusion of our Series B funding round gives us positive external validation of our journey. Attracting several first-time investors, plus increased investment from existing partners totalling €37 million, is a strong endorsement of the path we are on and shows that our investors share and support our development and growth strategy. To be able to concurrently announce that we now have over 2,500 pre-orders for the full-electric Volta Zero, shows that customers also understand and share our mission to revolutionise and decarbonise city centre logistics, and bring full-electric commercial vehicles to market as soon as possible.”
Sharp McGivaren of Luxor Capital, and Volta Trucks Board Member, added; “Volta’s commercial, engineering, manufacturing, and organizational progress has been nothing short of incredible. The Volta Zero and the benefits it delivers over conventional commercial vehicles are clearly resonating with customers, which is demonstrated by its current €600 million order book and the identified pipeline that is several times that size. We are thrilled to increase our commitment to Volta as it continues its path towards production.”
UBS, Fearnley and Finadvice acted as financial advisors to Volta Trucks.
About the Volta Zero
The Volta Zero is the world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for inner-city logistics, reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. Designed from the ground up with an operating pure-electric range of 150 – 200 kms (95 – 125 miles), the Volta Zero will eliminate an estimated 1.2M tonnes of CO2 by 2025.
Safety is also at the heart of Volta Trucks, with its ambition of producing the safest trucks for our cities. The Volta Zero was designed for electric from the outset, which facilitates a step-change in vehicle, driver and pedestrian safety. Thanks to the removal of the internal combustion engine, the operator of a Volta Zero sits in a central driving position, with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. This combination, plus a glass house-style cab design, gives the driver a wide 220-degrees of visibility, minimising dangerous blind spots.
The prototype Volta Zero was launched in September 2020, with the first vehicles expected to be operating with customers in mid-2022.
About Volta Trucks
Volta Trucks is a start-up full-electric goods vehicle manufacturer and services company. Volta Trucks has offices in Sweden, France and the UK and is partnering with a number of global leaders in the supply chain for the development and production of the Volta Zero.
