Better Place secures $350 million for EV project

Better Place Series B drives a landmark clean tech investment, valuing the EV infrastructure leader at $1.25 billion, led by $125 million from HSBC, with Morgan Stanley and Lazard backing battery swapping and charging networks.

Almost two years to the day after announcing its first car partnership and its first country deployment in Israel, Better Place has signed an agreement with an HSBC-led investor consortium for new equity financing of $350 million.

The deal marks one of the largest clean tech investments in history and values Better Place at $1.25 billion, according to the company.

This Series B equity financing round features participation from new investors including HSBC, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Lazard Asset Management. These investors will join existing Series A investors including Israel Corp., VantagePoint Venture Partners, Ofer Hi-Tech Holdings, Morgan Stanley Principal Investments and Maniv Energy Capital, among others, as shareholders of Better Place.

For HSBC, which led the round with an investment of $125 million, the deal represents one of the largest financial investments of its kind by HSBC.

As part of the deal, Kevin Adeson, HSBC Head of Global Capital Financing, will join the Better Place Board of Directors, and HSBC will own approximately 10 percent of the company’s shares.

“Today marks the end of an extensive process with the outcome being a decision by one of the world’s largest, most conservative banks, HSBC, to take the validating step of investing in a private company intent on bringing innovation to the trillion-dollar automotive and energy industries,” says Shai Agassi, Better Place founder and CEO.

“The strong investment commitment and global relationships that HSBC, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Lazard Asset Management bring to the table combined with the continuing confidence from our original investors enables us to scale up globally and execute against our plan.”

The financing allows Better Place to expand its geographic footprint while continuing to execute against its committed R&D and deployment milestones, including its EV software work across programs. The company intends to expand into markets where the business model economics and investor returns are optimized, notably in Europe and Asia.

Better Place continues to meet its timetable for Israel and Denmark launch plans for the end of 2011, with EV chargers in Jerusalem preparing the network when the first Renault switchable battery electric cars hit the road. Better Place also will continue to execute against its strategy of early deployment projects in Australia and select North American markets such as San Francisco a few months after the Israel and Denmark launches as planned.

Additionally, the company’s R&D team is currently testing each element of the Better Place solution in real-life scenarios around the world in a multi-phase cycle, beginning with the company’s managed EV network in Denmark, aligned with Denmark EV plans on infrastructure, which began last December, followed by a GTA pilot project in Canada, and a Tokyo electric taxi project with battery switch station, which kicks off in April this year. These and other development milestones lead up to full-scale trials in the second half of 2010 and commercial launch in 2011.

Agassi adds: “Our technology and solutions, together with our strong partnership with Renault and its EV investment provide us at least a two-year time advantage over all other alternative energy vehicle approaches. Our solution is the only one that can scale to decrease countries’ oil consumption and significantly reduce emissions, while providing consumers with electric cars that are more convenient and affordable than internal combustion engine cars.”

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