The Trump administration may be trying to kill electric vehicles, but sales remain brisk in Europe. EVs made up 97% of car sales in Norway in June.
A pain point on the continent has been a fragmented market for charging infrastructure and variability in charging rates. EV drivers and charge point operators are growing exasperated with intermediaries that have driven up charging costs and reduced revenue for operators.
Cariqa’s mobile app connects EV drivers directly with charge point operators for a less fragmented payments infrastructure. “By removing unnecessary intermediaries and creating a single source of truth for pricing, we reduce costs, improve transparency and simplify interactions without surfacing underlying complexity,” said Cariqa’s Stefano Bonetta.
EV infrastructure
The nearly $5 million seed round was co-led by Lithuania’s Contrarian Ventures and New York-based Anthemis. “Building scalable and resilient payment infrastructure to support EV charging has been totally overlooked,” said Anthemis’ Marin Cauvas. The payments layer is only the starting point, Anthemis wrote in a post.
The firm envisions Cariqa layering on financial products that benefit both drivers and charge point operators. “Ultimately, we see a future where Cariqa can enable grid services at scale.”
Anthemis invested via its Female Innovators Lab Fund, a $50 million women-focused fund backed by Barclays, Visa, BMO and Aviva Ventures. Other investors in the round include Techstars and Golden Egg Check, a Dutch early stage venture capital investor.
