Zenobe Energy (formerly known as Battery Energy Storage Solutions), a developer, operator, and owner of battery storage assets in the U.K., has secured a multi-source debt structure of £241 million (~$326.2 million) to accelerate the expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) fleet sector.
The funding platform advised by NatWest takes total debt support from financial institutions in the UK to over £300 million (~$406.1 million).
The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand its EV activities and finance up to 430 new e-buses in the UK and Ireland. The debt funding also supports the company’s turnkey fleet electrification offering.
The structure comprises long-dated term financing, including from UK private placement institutions Aviva and Scottish Widows, alongside a shorter-term facility provided by six banks – Lloyds, MUFG, NatWest, Santander, Siemens, and Societe Generale that is intended to fund capital investment to support e-bus and charging infrastructure provided under service contracts to bus operators.
Nicholas Beatty, Founder Director, Zenobe Energy, said: “This is an incredibly exciting step for both Zenobe and the transport sector. This innovative funding structure marks the coming of age of structured finance solutions for fleet electrification and signifies substantial growth for our business, allowing us to accelerate the rollout of electric buses across the UK.
“We are delighted to have worked with NatWest to complete this ground-breaking financing of a new asset class for the market. The funds we are able to draw on from our new and existing funding partners through these and future contracts will support Zenobē in our aims to assist our customers in achieving the UK’s vehicle electrification targets.”
Zenobe has 175 MW of operational and contracted storage assets and 394 EV buses, or an estimated 25% market share of the UK operational EV bus sector.
According to Mercom Research, Zenobe secured £150 million (~$203 million) in November 2020 from Infracapital, the infrastructure investment arm of asset manager M&G Plc.
Recently, Leap24, a charging network for electric vans and trucks, raised more than $4.8 million in seed funding from Yard Energy Investments and angel investors.
