Tallinn-born startup VOOL has collected €1.7M in a seed round which brings its total funding to €4.7M. The round was led by Specialist VC and saw participation from the former president of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, Elar Nellis, Taavi Kotka, entrepreneurs Justin Jenk and Toomas Kõuhkna, Opus 11 VC and Startup Wise Guys along with others. VOOL offers EV charging solutions for business and private customers, thus making the transition to green energy faster, more affordable and hassle-free. The startup intends to use the funding for the acceleration of production and expansion into new lands across Europe.
According to research from McKinsey, Europe will need at least 29 million private charging points by 2030 – representing a 77-fold increase from the estimated 375,000 charging stations available in 2021. Significant upgrades to the existing grid infrastructure will be needed to distribute electricity to these new charging stations.
VOOL, a new player from Estonia, accelerates the energy transition without the need for massive grid upgrades.
“Our solution uses the existing grid three times more efficiently,” says Juhan Härm, the co-founder and CEO of VOOL. “Currently, your dishwasher, charger, and kettle still have access to only a fraction of the full capacity of the grid, even though the whole of Europe is connected to three phases of electricity,” he explains. “We use all three phases and automatically switch between them when needed. This way, we can offer reliable and sustainable automatic charging.”
VOOL enables maximum cost-efficiency. Its software tracks the electricity prices and ensures that the EV is charged at the lowest cost possible within the set timeframe.
“This enables one to save up to 90% on the charging costs,” Härm promises. “Moreover, real-estate developers can avoid additional costs associated with infrastructure upgrades and building new charging spots,” he adds.
Former President of Estonia and angel investor of VOOL, Kersti Kaljulaid, is confident in the solution offered by VOOL.
“I invest in companies that operate in a sector I understand and create real things for which there is a market. I do not dare to support solutions that are still trying to find their problem to solve, but there is no such concern with VOOL. The problem – how to get the increasing amounts of energy we need from the plug – is certainly real. You just have to offer better solutions than your competitors,” she says.
Kaljulaid approves of the intelligent solution VOOL is offering.
“We can build rougher power grids to satisfy the increasing demand, but that would be unsustainable. It is better to find a way to best use the already existing main fuse. That is what VOOL does. To be honest, it is such a simple solution that I am surprised this had not yet been invented.”
With the funding secured, VOOL plans to ramp up the production of its chargers and expand its reach into new European markets. The company is on track to install 20,000 charging stations by the end of 2023.
The funding round was led by Specialist VC with the participation of the former president of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, Elar Nellis (the first employee of Pipedrive and current employee of VOOL), Taavi Kotka (former CIO of Estonia known for founding the e-Residency program), entrepreneurs Justin Jenk and Toomas Kõuhkna, as well as Opus 11 VC and the leading startup accelerator in Europe, Startup Wise Guys amongst others.
The company was founded in 2018 by energy experts Juhan Härm (CEO), Sander Vahtras (CPO) and Hindrik Kilter (CTO). The current investment round brought its total funding to €4,7M, including a grant of €3M from The European Union’s EIC Accelerator innovation fund in 2022.
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