New $50 Million funding for electric boat manufacturer X Shore
Electric boat manufacturer X Shore has secured another $50M in funding (approx €45.9M), which will be used to ramp up production at its new factory in Nyköping, Sweden and also support increased research and development.
New investors include Peter Carlsson, founder and CEO of Northvolt batteries, who is joined by X Shore board members, management and existing owners. Previous investors in X Shore include Delivery Hero founder Lukasz Gadowski’s Team Europe holding company, Navin Thukkaram, founder and CEO of Innovation Bootcamp, and Marec Gasiun, former Head of Automotive Business Development at Google.
These previous investors were at the core of an $18M funding round last April, part of which went to breaking ground for a new 15,000m2 factory in Nyköping, Sweden. Until then the company had purchased composite parts from subcontractors for assembly at their first factory in Frihamnen, near Stockholm.
Ready to produce 400 electric boats per year
The new facility provides the space and capabilities for not only a full assembly line but also manufacturing of all necessary components in a more sustainable way – including the composite hulls. The first production boat rolled off the line in late March. Through a combination of manual labour, automation and robotization, capacity for the plant is 2 complete boats per day – 400 per year with a five day work week.
Jenny Keisu, CEO of X Shore, says, “We have received an incredible amount of support during this latest funding round, resulting in over-subscription in less than two days. At a challenging time given market uncertainty, we are both proud and grateful for the enthusiasm for X Shore shown by well-reputable investors and the wider community.”
“The funds will be used to accelerate our production capabilities, ensuring that lead times for delivery are significantly decreased and also allow us to invest more in research and development, as well as to build out our sales channels globally.”
X Shore has been extremely active on all fronts over the past year, expanding beyond Europe with the official launch of its Eelex 8000 in the United States and an agreement with BCI Marine in Canada. It also announced plans for a local assembly plant on US soil this year.
They have a new strategic alliance with the Aqua superPower fast charging network to drive global marine electrification and in February they entered into a partnership with Kreisel Electric and their patented immersion-cooled batteries.
The 225kW motor of the Eelex 8000 will be powered exclusively by Kreisel, with two KBP 63 packs totalling 126 kWh. The boat has a range of 100 nautical miles at cruising speed and can reach speeds of 30 knots / 35 kmH. With fast DC charging stations like those of Aqua superpower, the battery packs can recharge from 0-100% in less than two and a half hours, 20-80% in just over an hour.
Electric boat manufacturer X Shore – a quick funding history
X Shore was founded in 2016 by Swede Konrad Bergström, who was also one of the founders of Zound, the company that brought the world Urbanears and Marshall headphones. He first conceptualized the idea of an electric boat company in 1996 and said that “Founding Zound introduced me to the burgeoning technology scene and opened up new thoughts. In 2012 I began to work with the idea of creating an electric craft, and X Shore began to take shape.”
The first models were introduced at Boot Dusseldorf in January 2019, coming on the heels of a successful crowdfunding campaign on the FundedByMe platform that raised €1.5 million – US$ 1.66M.
In March of 2020 a round of €5M (US$ 5.7M) was led by veterinary hospital executive Peter Dahlberg who Bergström welcomed as “One of Sweden’s top business leaders and someone who really knows how to scale a world-class business.”
Ms. Keisu was also part of that team, having previously been a founding partner of Summa Equity, one of the first venture capital firms to specialize in backing companies that advance the UN’s Sustainability Goals. “With Summa we were pushing the whole investment industry towards sustainable operations.” she said. “When I met Konrad, I could clearly see that I could build a company out of his most amazing vision.”
Indeed. With last year’s $18M funding round, this $50 million, a new factory, new partnerships and strategic alliances in place, expanding sales channels…X Shore is very strongly placed to be one of the global leaders in the electric boat revolution of the coming years.
