Proptech startup scales its network of multifamily real estate partners, unveils engineering lab, and expands reseller program to help better facilitate mass-adoption of clean transportation by providing more accessibility to EV charging
LOS ANGELES, CA and NEW YORK, NY – Xeal, the tech company making electric vehicle charging more reliable and accessible for building developers and owners, announced $40M in Series B funding, bringing the company’s total financing to $54M to-date. Keyframe Capital led the round, with additional participation from follow-on investors ArcTern Ventures, Moderne Ventures and Ramez Naam, and participating investors Nexus Labs, Wind Ventures and Alpaca VC. Along with the Series B, Xeal also secured a $10M credit line from Bridge Bank. The total funds will be used to develop new products, accelerate the deployment of EV charging stations, scale Xeal’s network of real estate partners, expand a new reseller program and further establish the company as a multifamily leader nationwide.
Robust relationships with real estate owners are essential for Xeal’s mission to accelerate the mass-scale adoption of EVs by making clean energy work anywhere for anyone. To further this, Xeal has hired seasoned multifamily leaders Stephanie Wyrick and Tyler Hansen as senior directors to help expand across the West Coast. They are joining the team to shepherd relationships with Xeal’s new commercial real estate partners, including notable recent additions like UBS, StreetLights Residential and Friedman Realty Group. The company has grown rapidly since its launch in 2021, with sales increasing approximately 10x year-over-year by 2022 and the team growing by 5x.
Xeal is known for its patent-pending technology, Apollo, the first EV charging solution with a distributed ledger-based technology. Apollo allows Xeal to deploy smart EV charging stations anywhere with 100% self-reliance for all smart functions, and ensures a driver never gets stranded by a charger being inoperable due to central networking issues. This also saves building owners’ CAPEX and operating expenses by eliminating the need for IT infrastructure, Wi-Fi or cellular costs. The decentralized protocol leverages user smartphones with time-bound cryptographic tokens and distributed ledgers to maintain a bi-directional management channel with EV charging stations. This enables all smart functions (ie: user authentication, access control, digital payment, over-the-air updates, remote diagnostics, demand response, etc.) without any dependence on a central server. The chargers allow users to initiate and complete a charging session faster, with the assurance that no internet outage or external central system failure will impact charging capabilities. With this raise, Xeal is augmenting its technology by offering new product lines that satisfy all types of electric vehicles. Xeal is also working with leading EV charger OEMs to help them achieve 100% uptime and a frictionless experience for drivers.
“As hundreds of new car models emerge in the exploding EV industry, companies are racing to find innovative, affordable charging solutions that make a real impact on enabling and accelerating mass-scale electrification,” said Alexander (Zander) Isaacson, Co-Founder and CEO of Xeal. “Unlike traditional central networked solutions and anyone else in the space, Xeal eliminates the single-point-of-failure networking issue that leads to charger downtime and instead offers the industry 100% reliability to make widespread EV adoption that much easier. With our rapid growth, several new partnerships in the pipeline and our engineering expansion, we’re looking forward to further powering the future of energy and mobility through innovation that’s built to last.”
Xeal recently launched a state-of-the-art engineering lab in Venice, CA, that will test and showcase Xeal’s latest product offerings and new technology in development. The technology developed in this unique facility will further the company’s commitment to accelerating the future of clean energy, smart cities and innovation.
“Without anyone asking them for their permission, multifamily buildings are being rapidly transformed into the gas stations of the future. Not only is car charging becoming a necessary amenity to attract tenants, but landlords have been faced with tackling technical requirements related to connectivity and electricity supply that their spaces were not designed for, and to do so fast,” said Benjamin Birnbaum, Partner at Keyframe Capital, who has joined Xeal’s board of directors. “Xeal, with its proprietary Apollo protocol, is the first and only technology that we’ve seen that was able to consistently meet property owners’ needs at scale, with full reliability, and at the lowest cost. This is a team that has proven they are winners in one of the most exciting markets in energy or proptech.”
With more EV drivers hitting the road, real estate developers are looking for affordable, reliable ways to create the necessary EV infrastructure and satisfy tenant demand. Xeal has established itself as a major player in the EV charging space through relationships with more than 80 major real estate companies including Lincoln Property Company, NRP Group, Stoneweg and Harrison Street, with new partnerships being rolled out on a bi-weekly basis. As of 2022, Xeal is electrifying major markets across 40 states and is poised to grow its number of chargers deployed by 500% over the next year.
