Big bucks for bus-boosting Clean-tech ViriCiti with €700.000 financing round

Dutch clean-tech startup ViriCiti has announced it has secured a €700.000 investment round. The vast majority of this is coming from Mainport Innovation Fund II, which consists of several major Dutch transport companies. Breesaap Green Link SL, which specifically invests in clean-tech start-ups, is also part of this investment round.

ViriCiti is developing a cloud-based monitoring system for electrical vehicles like buses and coaches, and their platform is already in use in a dozen countries. Big ViriCiti clients in the Netherlands are Schiphol Airport, bus company Qbuzz and bus manufacturer VDL. At Schiphol ViriCiti has already successfully worked together with BYD and Airside Authority Schiphol Group to achieve a fleet of 35 electric buses (‘e-buses’) operating on the Schiphol-platform. A big international name using ViriCiti is Chinese automobile manufacturer BYD.

Duracell Bunny-effect
The clean-tech claims their platform enables vehicles to perform longer and more reliable at lower costs. This Duracell Bunny-effect should lead to performance improvement in electrical vehicles, which in turn should result in more EV’s on the road and more durability in the transport sector.

ViriCiti collects vast amounts of data from EV’s and interprets this information into useful insights for transport companies. These insights should boost performance and enable more accurate planning, which should also come in handy with planning maintenance.

Worldwide Mission
ViriCiti CEO Freek Dielissen is obviously over the moon: “With this investment we can further expand our international presence”. Thijs Gitmans, Fund Manager for Mainport Innovation Fund II, is equally excited: “ViriCiti is a perfect fit for our fund’s ambition, which is to accelerate innovation in transport, logistics and aviation. From our very first meeting on, they have been impressing us with their knowledge and with their ability to make deals with big international players in the early stages of a rapidly growing market. We are proud to support them on their worldwide mission”.

Punctual Partners?
Mainport Innovation Fund II is managed by NBI Investors. The fund was created in 2015 by KLM, Schiphol Airport, the Technical University of Delft and port authority Havenbedrijf Amsterdam. Dutch Railway Company NS is also part of Mainport Innovation Fund which is rather surprising; given their reputation one would think the NS would stay as far away as possible from a platform that monitors punctuality, increases reliability and plans maintenance.