An infrastructure fund run by alternatives specialist EQT has acquired one of the UK’s fastest growing electric vehicle charging companies from private equity group Zouk Capital.
The company announced in a media statement on Tuesday (22 February) that its EQT Infrastructure V Fund had acquired InstaVolt for an undisclosed sum.
InstaVolt was founded in 2016 and has a UK-wide network of around 700 public charge points with plans to reach 10,000 by 2032.
The Basingstoke-based company aims to exploit the lack of access to off-street charging and reliance on public charging stations as the UK bans sales of petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
InstaVolt’s charge points are most often situated at retail, food, beverage, and forecourt sites, with current partners including McDonald’s, Costa Coffee and Booths. EQT Infrastructure has committed to investing to significantly accelerate InstaVolt’s expansion of charge points across the UK.
“The future is electric and InstaVolt is essential to the roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the UK, a prerequisite for enabling mass adoption of EVs,” said Anna Sundell, partner and head of EQT Infrastructure’s UK advisory team.
“We are excited about supporting InstaVolt in the next phase of growth and for EQT to play its part in decarbonising the transportation sector and driving the transition towards net zero in the UK and beyond.”
Founding investor Zouk Capital is manager of the £420m Charging Investment Fund, which is sponsored by the UK government and focused on the public EV charging market. It exits having established InstaVolt with its management team in 2016.
Adrian Keen, chief executive officer at InstaVolt, said support from EQT would put it in a unique position to accelerate its target and replicate our model in other geographies, “transitioning the business into the next phase of growth”.
He said: “We want to thank our partners and customers who have supported us on our journey so far and want our customers to be reassured that what has made InstaVolt so successful, including our focus on reliability and ease of use, remains unchanged.”
Massimo Resta, partner at Zouk Capital, added: “The InstaVolt team and Zouk identified the opportunity in 2016 and built one of the leading rapid EV charging infrastructure companies in the UK.
“We believe the management team are in great hands with EQT and wish InstaVolt the very best for the next stage of their journey.”
RBC Capital Markets acted as exclusive financial adviser, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted as legal adviser to EQT Infrastructure.
This transaction – subject to regulatory approvals – puts EQT Infrastructure V is expected at 65-70% invested.
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