Zenobē, provider of end-to-end solutions in fleet electrification as well as battery storage solutions, announced that it has secured an investment of £600 million from investment firm KKR. In addition, a further £270 million of equity has been invested by existing shareholder Infracapital1. Upon completion of the transaction KKR and Infracapital will become joint majority shareholders in Zenobē. Jera and TEPCO Power Grid will remain as minority, strategic shareholders.
Today, Zenobē supports more than 1,000 electric buses, trucks and commercial vehicles worldwide, and has worked with operators to deploy vehicles in over 75 depots ranging from Glasgow and Coventry in the UK to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. Zenobe has surpassed the milestone of 50 electric fleet electrification projects around the world. In November 2022 the first 50 all-electric National Express buses took to the roads in Coventry supported by Zenobē’s Electric Transport-as-a-Service (ETaaS) solution, with that figure set to grow to 130 e-buses by the end of the year. ETaaS includes the provision of on-board replacement of batteries, the charging and grid infrastructure system at a depot, with dedicated rapid chargers, and a software platform which helps monitor and optimise energy use, as well as parts and operational support. In 2022, Zenobē, working with Transgrid and Transit Systems, announced the opening of Australia’s largest all-electric bus depot in Leichhardt near Sydney. The equity investment will fuel the expansion of the company’s fleet electrification and grid-scale battery storage business, accelerating the decarbonisation of fleet transportation and maximising the uptake of renewables. By 2026,
Zenobē aims to support 4,000 electric buses, trucks and commercial vehicles on the road. Zenobē currently has 430MW of contracted grid-scale battery storage in the UK in operation or under construction, including its landmark 100MW battery storage asset at Capenhurst, Cheshire. This latest equity investment will enable the business to accelerate its offering with the design and construction of two additional battery storage sites across Scotland at Kilmarnock South and Eccles. It will also enable the extension in capacity of the company’s battery storage asset at Blackhillock. The site will support the integration of wind power resources into the grid and Zenobē’s target to commission 1.2GW of storage in the UK by 2026. The investment will also back its target to develop an additional 2.5GW of battery energy storage assets in North America and Australia by 2030. The equity investment is the latest in a series of financial agreements by Zenobē, who have secured around £1.8 billion of equity and debt finance since being established by its three founders Nicholas Beatty, James Basden and Steven Meersman in 2017. Zenobē now employs 230 staff globally.