Beep, a Singaporean internet of things (IoT) transaction platform startup, has announced the close of its $3.3 million Pre-Series A investment.
The oversubscribed fundraise was led by existing investors Granite Asia (formerly GGV Capital), Farquhar VC, SUTD Venture Holdings, Wing Vasiksiri and new participation from M7 Ace Neo, an M7 Company, Beep said in a statement on Wednesday.
It said this aligns with its expansion into Southeast Asia starting with Thailand and Malaysia.
According to the firm, there is massive demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in Southeast Asia with total EV sales in the region experiencing a 894 percent year-on-year surge.
The first phase of Beep’s regional expansion strategy focuses on extending Voltality’s charging network in Thailand and Malaysia.
It is noted that Voltality’s platform is now live with its first partners in Malaysia and will launch in Thailand in the third quarter of 2024.
In Thailand, Voltality has already signed contracts with Sharge and Evolt, two of the top five charging operators in Thailand, together with WHA Group, a leading developer of fully integrated logistics, industrial estates, power and utilities and digital solutions, and EVme, the country’s largest and fastest-growing EV rental and purchasing platform.
The agreement will enable connectivity for several thousand vehicles to over 1,600 charge points locally, with the network set to continue growing in the near future.
In Malaysia, contracts have been signed with several charging operators including Sime Darby Berhad subsidiary, KINETA.
KINETA is a major player in Malaysia’s EV space and announced a partnership in May with ChargEV to accelerate EV charging and roaming innovation.
Beep partnered with KINETA to enable its “KINETA Charge” application with Voltality’s platform.
Voltality has also secured contracts with mobility partners to enable both local and cross-border charging connectivity within the 2nd half of 2024.
Beep is also exploring expanding to other regional markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and more for its second phase in 2025.
To help navigate its continued regional expansion, Ming Maa, ex-Grab Group President, will also join Beep as an advisor, bringing significant operational expertise in market development and partnerships within South-East Asia’s complex landscape.
“As EV adoption continues to surge, seamless access to charging infrastructure is an increasingly crucial requirement for both consumers and businesses making the transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, yet connectivity remains fragmented across the region,
“Voltality aims to empower both charging operators and mobility providers, allowing them to embed connectivity across different charging stations directly inside their own platforms, with an added option for app-less payments through credit cards and QR codes, so drivers need only one interface to charge wherever they go,” said Kristoffer Jacek Soh, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Beep.
“From our strong foundation established in Singapore, we found a common need for the same capabilities abroad, and we are now ready to cement our presence in Thailand, Malaysia and beyond,
“We are very excited to witness the next stage in Beep’s journey as we aim to help accelerate the adoption of EVs through Voltality,” he added.
It is noted that in 2023, Beep successfully launched the largest electric vehicle roaming network under Voltality spanning over 1350 charge points and 11 operators in Singapore.
Since then, the network has continued to expand with the latest addition being a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing in July 2024 with ChargEco, a rapidly growing Singaporean Charge Point Operator (CPO) jointly set up by SMRT Corporation’s business arm STRIDES and integrated energy provider YTL PowerSeraya.
ChargEco is one of the five operators awarded by the Land Transport Authority to collectively deploy charging stations in nearly 2,000 public Housing Board car parks islandwide.
With this MOU, Voltality is partnered with four out of the five selected operators in the landmark tender to make every Housing & Development Board (HDB) town EV-ready by 2025.
Together with new partners in Thailand and Malaysia, this brings Voltality’s total charging network to over 5000 charging stations from 1350 in 2023 – representing a four-times coverage growth in less than 12 months and maintaining Voltality’s eRoaming service (VoltNet) as the largest permission-based eRoaming network in the region.
On the commercial front, Voltality recently signed an MOU with Grab to collaborate on increasing the number of charging operators onboarded onto the network, and to support building an integrated charging platform for its driver-partners in the region.
An initial closed-door pilot has also started with select driver-partners in Singapore.
On the consumer front, Voltality signed a MOU with Huawei Consumer Cloud Service.
This will improve the data of charging station locations when using Huawei’s Petal Maps and ‘Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) for Car’ across Southeast Asia.
As a result, EV drivers using Petal Maps and HMS will receive a more accurate “smart” journey planner based on their EV’s battery life.
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