Delft, Netherlands-based Rocsys, a robotic EV charging solution provider, has raised $6.3M (approx €5.26M) in a fresh round of funding led by Forward.One – a VC fund focussed on investing in high-tech start-ups and scale-ups. The round also saw participation from existing investor Superangel – an Estonian early stage investment fund, created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
Rocsys has raised a total of $9M (approx €7.5M) in funding since its inception in 2019, which includes additional funding by UNIIQ and grants.
Funds for expansion through Europe
Rocsys is all set to scale up its activities throughout Europe, and launch a North-American business unit.
Crijn Bouman, CEO of Rocsys, says, “The coming period will be pivotal for our business. We will move from technology development and commercial pilots to serial deployment. We are ready for the future, and are very well positioned to engage the full market potential. Automation brings EV charging to the next level of reliability and performance. This is crucial to the success of EVs in large professional operations, for example operations depending on fleets. With the investment and support of our great investors, we will make that happen.”
Enabling scalable operations with EVs
Rocsys was founded in 2019 by Crijn Bouman (CEO), Kanter van Deurzen (Head of development), and Dr. Joost van der Weijde (Head of Technology & IP). With more than a decade of experience, the entrepreneurial team addresses a key challenge in the booming EV ecosystem.
Rocsys develops solutions to offer a suite of remote management and support tools, and an API integration platform, enabling a complete solution to serve growing industry needs.
The company also provides solutions to fully automate professional charging sites. With its smart solutions, EV infrastructure operators can increase their asset utilisation. As the automotive world steadily moves towards self-parking and self-driving, automation of charging is becoming inevitable for the globally installed base of EV chargers.
The technology
The company claims its patented soft-robotics technology and AI-based computer vision allow for safe and cost-efficient automation of the standard EV-charging connection. Its products can automate existing fast chargers up to 350kW and MW-capable chargers in the near future, allowing EVs of all types to be charged automatically within minutes.
Together with a suite of site-automation services, remote support, and API integration, operators can move to unmanned charging operations. This unlocks unprecedented functionality, performance, and ROI of their charging- and EV assets, while simultaneously getting prepared for the era of self-parking and self-driving.
A brief about the founders
In April 2019, Crijn Bouman and Joost van der Weijde started Rocsys and were later joined by Kanter van Deurzen. Crijn has a 15 year track record in the fast charging industry, Joost has a PhD degree in robotics, and Kanter has an intensive industry background in computer vision. This lays a strong foundation to create innovative solutions for automated EV charging.
Looking back on the company’s background, Rocsys mentions on its website that, “The backing by professional investors created a budget to increase the speed of the developments. Through several design iterations and pilot projects, the founders created an automated charging solution that is safe, reliable, and cost efficient.” With more than ten technicians in the team, the company is ready to scale up further.
01
Tech meets private credit: Demystifying Norsad Capital’s efficiency boost with PE Front Office