An electric vehicle start-up focused on lower cost and scalable rapid charging has secured £3m (€3.5m) in its first funding round.

The technology is said to reduce costs tenfold compared to installing conventional rapid DC chargers

Go Eve, a joint University College Dublin and Imperial College London spin-out, has developed ‘DockChain’ technology said to make rapid DC charging possible for all parking spaces at little more than the cost of slow AC charging.

It does so by extending the reach of single rapid chargers to service multiple parking spaces, transforming EV fleet operations or the visitor charging experience.

Go Eve’s software then intelligently manages a virtual queue, flowing high power to each individual connected EV, scheduling each in turn (see video here).

The technology is said to reduce costs tenfold compared to installing conventional rapid DC chargers.

It’s already been successfully piloted at the Imperial College London campus in November 2022 and the initial fund-raising round will be used to secure supply chains and significantly scale production.

The financial backing is also being used for the first installations of the DockChain system on sites over the summer – the technology will be available in volume in Europe and the US before the end of the year.

Investors in the funding round include the Pearl Family Office, Carter Gem, Automotive Ventures Inc, Kero Development Partners and Cur8 Capital.

Hugh Sheehy, CEO at Go Eve, said: “Go Eve offers a technology that can transform EV charging. For EVs to replace fossil-fuel cars, charging needs to be faster, lower cost, more widely available and most efficiently use available grid capacity. Our technology does all these things, which is why we see a future with rapid charging in every space.”

He added: “We have reliable manufacturing partners who can rapidly scale cable and microchip production to meet our expected growth. We currently have capacity for hundreds of installations now – we’re prepared for thousands next year. We anticipate strong pickup for DockChain, particularly for fleet operators and in destination car parks.”

Tom Flanagan, director of enterprise and commercialisation at University College Dublin, said: “We are delighted to continue to collaborate with our colleagues in Imperial College London as we support Go Eve in commercialising its exciting DockChain technology, which has potential to make a significant impact on how EVs are charged on the global stage.”