Canva advisor backs e-car share start-up Evee to expand to US, UK
High-profile Canva advisor Lee Torrens has backed Australian electric car sharing platform Evee, as it kicks off a fundraising round to fuel an international expansion across the UK and Europe.
Evee this week launched a crowd-funding raise on equity crowd-funding platform Birchal, hitting its minimum target of $300,000 in two hours, and is raising a maximum of $1.6m in a bid to roll out its platform globally.
The platform, which has racked up around 8000 customers since its launch and has grown 100 per cent year-on-year for the past three years, is the nations only rental platform offering just electric vehicles.
Founder and chief executive Slava Kozlovskii said that his customers earn up to $2000 per month by renting out their electric vehicle to travellers and people who are dipping their toe in the EV market for the first time.
“We are blown away by the support thrown behind our company,“ Mr Kozlovskii said.
“I’ve been looking at the names of our top investors and they are a mix of people we know who own an electric car, or customers who regularly use our platform to hire EVs. We also have a lot of people who have held notable positions in companies such as Canva and Atlassian – so it is really exciting to have people with connections to the high-profile tech industry throwing their full support behind us.”
The executive added that renters often use Evee as part of their first steps towards buying their own electric car.
“Often they don’t know whether it’s right for them, or don’t know which car is perfectly suited to them,” he said.
“They love asking lots of questions and our host owners are happy to answer them. All the latest model electric cars you can buy in Australia are available to rent on our platform – Tesla, Polestar, BYD, Kia, Mercedes, MG and more.
“If you go to Tesla, you’re only given a 20-minute test drive and that never gives you a full understanding of how great these vehicles are.
“Nothing beats taking that baby out for a whole weekend, and really experiencing the joys of owning an electric car. Evee allows you to do that … You can experience charging your car at a supercharging station, at home and so much more than you can ever experience in a 20-minute test drive.”
As
The Australian recently reported Australia is on the brink of a “perfect storm” of mass electric-vehicle uptake, with a combination of predicted new government policy, a flood of new and more affordable products, and a cohesive national framework of subsidies and rebates all combining to supercharge EV growth in 2023.
Financial documents filed with crowd-funding platform Birchal show the company most recently posted a net loss after tax of $276,000 for the 2022 financial year, from a $16,000 profit a year earlier. It has a $9m valuation.
Lee Torrens, an advisor to Canva and one of its first employees, is one of Evee’s top investors. “I didn’t invest in the early days of the internet nor did I invest in the early days of smartphones,” he said.
“So I don’t want to miss the opportunity of investing in the early days of electric cars. I like Evee because it’s building a solid foundation to dominate the crowd rental portion of the EV market transformation.”
Mr Kozlovskii said that while other car share platforms also rent electric cars, these companies still provide mostly petrol-consuming rides. Evee is in pole position to ride the wave of EV ownership in Australia, which doubled between 2021 and 2022, he said.
“The car rental market in Australia is worth $2bn annually with electric vehicles being the fastest growing niche. Through the trust we have built we are able to capitalise on every step of a customer’s EV journey.
“Our Birchal equity crowd-funding raise will help us expand the business, on-board more vehicles and deliver an unforgettable customer experience. Evee is poised to become a full-service offering for the EV inclined and we want anyone who is passionate about this space to share in our good fortunes by becoming part-owners in our business.”
DAVID SWAN TECHNOLOGY EDITOR