Israeli Electric Car Company Secures Major Funding

An Israeli funded and U.S.-based cleantech company secured $350 million in funding on Monday from several major financial companies. Widely regarded as the world’s leading electric vehicle services provider, Better Place secured the unprecedented funding to expand its market beyond its present operations in Israel, Denmark and Australia. “Today marks the end of an extensive process,” said Shai Agassi, Better Place Founder and Chief Executive Officer, “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.” Other investors include the Israel Corp., VantagePoint Venture Partners, Ofer Hi-Tech Holdings, Morgan Stanley Principal Investments and Maniv Energy Capital. With the latest round of investment the company has so far raised $700 million. The basic idea of Better Place is to enable widespread use of electrical vehicles and a more efficient use of energy by integrating infrastructure, automakers, battery suppliers and energy companies. The role of Better Place is to be the integrator between the various components in the network rather than a designer or developer of parts. 
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