Jan 27, 2009
Better Place Raises Financing for Denmark Electric Car Project
The proliferation of electric cars and convenient places to charge them took another step toward becoming reality in Denmark today, with the announcement that startup Better Place and Danish partner DONG Energy have closed €103 million ($135.8 million) in financing for an electric car-charging network in the country.
The two companies originally signed a deal to work together last March. With this funding in place, which comes from Better Place and state-controlled DONG in the form of equity and convertible debt, the two partners plan to have a demonstration center set up in Denmark this year — in time to show off the technology at the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December. 
The electric cars will come from the Renault-Nissan Alliance, with Better Place and DONG still aiming for the charging network to be fully functional by mid-2011.
The amount of funding that each company put up for this project was not disclosed, but Martin Wiinholt, a spokesman for Better Place, told us via email that the funding from Better Place comes from new money raised, and not from its existing funding.
In a press conference in Denmark, Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place, said, “This shows you that, even in these tough times, good ideas, good companies, can get funded, can bring in new ideas into the market.”
Better Place previously raised $200 million from investors including Israel Corp., Morgan Stanley, the Ofer Group, and VantagePoint Venture Partners.
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