Swedish electric boat company nets €5M funding, new CEO, COO
Swedish electric boat company X Shore has taken another big step in popularizing electric boats with the announcement of a €5M (US$ 5.7M) investment from a group led by veterinary hospital executive Peter Dahlberg.
This is an addition to an investment of €1.5M (US$ 1.7M) raised in October through a crowdfunding campaign. (BTW, almost 200 Plugboats readers checked out the crowdfunding, although we don’t know if any of you contributed.) In total the company has raised funding of €9.5M (US$ 10.75M).
The press release announcing this new investment said “the funding will be used to continue the development of X Shore’s high-speed electric 5.8-metre and 8-metre boats, and to ramp-up the team and new facilities in Stockholm.”
X Shore founder Konrad Bergström will remain as President and focus his attention on design, brand building, and marketing efforts. He first conceptualized the idea of an electric boat company in 1996, began serious work on his dream in 2012, founded the company in 2016, and will continue to be the memorable and engaging public face of X Shore in guiding the mission to “bring sustainability and innovation to the maritime sector”.
X Shore preparing to take Swedish electric boat global
Funding leader Peter Dahlberg was already an X Shore investor and now becomes the second largest shareholder in the Swedish electric boat company, after Mr. Bergström. Mr. Dahlberg recently stepped down as the Group CEO of Anicura, where he built the company from its first merger of veterinary medical outlets in Stockholm to a pan-European network of 300 animal hospitals and clinics.
Along with the funding comes a team assembled to expand X Shore and bring its operations up to global scale. Bergström said “A strong order book and growing demand for our boats makes this the right time for us to take additional investment”. The new CEO and COO leading (and presumably expanding) a 10+ people team in Stockholm are:
- CEO Jenny Keisu. With experience as a lawyer, entrepreneur, investor, CEO and advisor to companies working to specifically address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, she will be managing overall operations and strategic direction.
- COO Oscar Fors was recently the President of Battery Systems at Northvolt and spent 15 years as a Partner at the Silicon Valley office of management consulting firm Accenture. He will be responsible for engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing efforts.
Two all-electric X Shore models available
X Shore’s first prototype electric boats were introduced at the BOOT Dusseldorf show in 2019, and this year’s next models – the new Eelord 6000 and the Eelex 8000, a revamped version of the original – were some of the most talked about electric boats at BOOT 2020.
Eelord 6000
Length: 5.8m • Beam: 2.3m • Draught: 0.6m • Weight: 1200kg • Range: 60 NM • Charging time: 6 hours • Top Speed: 40 knots • Price: €149,000
Eelex 8000
Length: 8.0m • Beam: 2.5 m • Draught: 0.8 m • Weight: 2600 kg • Max Range: 100NM in lower speeds • Battery capacity: 120 kWh • Charging time: 8h on 360V, 24h on 220V, 1h on Supercharge • Sterndrive: Volvo Penta Dual Prop Sterndrive • Top Speed: 40 knots • Cruising Speed: 24 knots • Maximum Engine Output: 220 KW • Price: €199,000
Ready for the electric boat future
It’s been a long and exciting journey for Konrad Bergström. He said “When I first had the idea for X Shore in the nineties battery technology wasn’t really around, and people were still happily whizzing around in their diesel motor boats, without a care in the world. But today we are in a completely different place, where sustainability is finally cool.”
“I am really happy to have Peter on board as an investor and shareholder. He is one of Sweden’s top business leaders and someone who really knows how to scale a world-class business. With Jenny and Oscar joining the team, as well as investing in the company, I’m now confident that we have the brains and the brawn to steer X Shore through this new, green decade.”
