Munich Startup: Last time we spoke, you wanted to install as many charging points as possible with Chargex as quickly as possible. What’s your current progress report?
Michael Masnitza, Chargex: Excellent! The interview was back in early 2019, and the first small series came off the production line – well, off our desks in the old office – from mid-2019 onwards. In December 2021, we launched the second generation of our charging system Aqueduct and also launched a dedicated app for operation. Users can prioritize the charging process here. Operators get uncomplicated user management and billing, and can adjust load distribution to their operational needs. In 2023, we added a dedicated billing tool for hotels – our Hotel Dashboard. We’ve also now got verified meter compliance in our portfolio. Overall, we now have more than 4,500 charging modules deployed with customers in the field.
Munich Startup: What obstacles did you encounter along the way?
Michael Masnitza, Chargex: First of all, fundraising: there was very little venture capital in the market for charging hardware for a long time. We therefore had to develop very capital-efficiently, which naturally demanded a lot from our employees. It was only with validated hardware that we could raise meaningful venture capital for growth. In addition, there were the relatively complicated German regulations for billing charging current, which are different from the rest of the EU. Certification for the mentioned verified meter compliance cost a lot of time and resources. This set us back somewhat in international comparison, since we wanted to have the right product on our home market. At the same time, the shortage of skilled workers and competition for employees in Munich was a huge issue for us. But through our collaborations with TU München, Hochschule München we were able to recruit many great employees!
A consistent concept with new features
Munich Startup: How has your solution evolved?
Michael Masnitza, Chargex: The concept hasn’t changed much, but the second version comes with many new features: load management is now phase-specific, the connector system is even simpler to use thanks to the new housing, and the connectors have been redesigned so that even a layperson can assemble the system almost following furniture store-style instructions.
With our certification for German verified meter compliance, we can also handle billing in private, semi-public, and public spaces. For us, this particularly includes billing charging current to employees at the workplace or billing guests in the hotel sector. You can also now bill the greenhouse gas quota through us.
Additionally, we’ve greatly expanded our digital offerings. We’ve developed a specialized administration and billing solution for small and medium-sized companies and integrated it into the user app “Drop Power Sharing”. We’ve also added the Hotel Dashboard mentioned earlier.
Munich Startup: And how are things financially for you?
Michael Masnitza, Chargex: Financially, there have naturally been ups and downs. The Corona period was also challenging for Chargex. But with a successful crowd investment campaign, we were able to complete a strong Series A financing and recently a very successful Series B growth financing. Our revenue is growing well. Particularly because our more than 600 existing customers are increasingly equipping parking spaces with charging facilities.
Chargex: “The Munich ecosystem is naturally brilliant for a mobility startup”
Munich Startup: What role has the Munich ecosystem played on your journey so far?
Michael Masnitza, Chargex: The Munich ecosystem is naturally brilliant for a mobility startup. Our lead investor, for example, comes from the local network: UnternehmerTUM Venture Capital from Munich. With DE:hub mobility and Citizen mobility, we test innovative product and service ideas, and with the Technical University of Munich, we’re part of the largest applied research project for mobility MCube. That naturally helps us, especially in finding ambitious employees. Because our success is based on our great team, which almost doubles every 12 months.
Munich Startup: What milestones are you working towards next?
Michael Masnitza, Chargex: A lot is happening with our digital product soon. We’re enabling automatic bank transfers from users and automatic forwarding to the operator, so to our customers. There will also be a dashboard for fleet managers.
On top of that, our Aqueduct NEO launches in April with even more simplifications for installation – it really can’t get any more Plug&Play than that!
And what’s really high on our agenda: we’re currently looking for pilot customers from the residential real estate sector, because Aqueduct is also perfect for commercial landlords. However, there’s almost no charging infrastructure in this sector yet. If a reader happens to own or operate a few dozen rental apartments or commercial units, we’re ready for the first pilots!
