Pelikan Mobility raises €4M seed funding for commercial fleet electrification

Today commercial fleet platform Pelikan Mobility announced it has raised a €4 million seed round.

The brainchild of founders David Salfati (Engie, Macquarie) and Vincent Schachter (CEA, TotalEnergies, smart-charging pioneer eMotorWerks sold to Enel) the company launched at the end of 2022 with the aim to make mass electrification of commercial fleets affordable and operationally efficient.

With commercial fleets accounting for 10 per cent of European greenhouse gas emissions, their decarbonisation is a significant sustainability priority. It is also a major practical and financial challenge, given the sheer size of their asset base (new commercial vehicles sales in Europe total 1.9 million units annually - a €100 billion of investment per year) and their critical role in supporting vital pillars of the modern economy - from parcel delivery, to distributing food, maintaining critical infrastructures, collecting waste or transporting patients.

However, despite clear drive for sustainability, electrification of commercial fleets is not progressing at the intended pace. The reason is down to economics: in many cases, electrification is simply too expensive and operationally disruptive for companies that rely on their fleet to carry out their core business.

The problem lies in the fact that EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are fundamentally different assets, and yet the commercial fleet ecosystem - from vehicle leasing to fleet operations - effectively treats EVs like low grade ICEs.

This is massively inefficient - operationally and financially: EV constraints like payload, charging and range are not natively factored into fleet operations, and EV benefits like their high durability and energy efficiency are not fully capitalised upon.

The switch to an EV-native paradigm is very complex and disruptive though, because the entire fleet value chain was honed for ICE vehicles over decades.

Pelikan is addressing this challenge by building a new type of commercial EV leasing solution: tech-native and operations-centric. Powered by a deeptech platform leveraging operational data, it bridges EV leasing and fleet operations, driving down the cost of electrification by empowering operators to efficiently and productively integrate EVs in the specific operational context of their fleet,

This includes extending lease duration and assets longevity, whilst controlling risks and ensuring fit-for-purpose.

Since its launch, Pelikan has developed the core software platform, which went live in 2023 and is being deployed and tested with major utility and logistics players in France.

Vincent Schachter, co-founder, commented:

“Pelikan's mission is to drive massive electrification of commercial fleets. In order to achieve this, we are convinced that a radically new approach is necessary.

We started by developing our technology for usage-driven optimisation and fine-tuned its capabilities with our first customers. With this initial round of funding, we will leverage it to lease cost-effective and productive EVs tailored to the context of each fleet."

The funding is raised from Pale Blue Dot, Frst, Seedcamp, and other investors. 

Pierre Entremont, Managing Partner at Frst capital, said: 

"We invest in seed-stage companies with the ambition and potential to transform their industry. Pelikan Mobility introduces a groundbreaking approach: reinvent commercial vehicle leasing from first principles, by fully embracing the shift to electric.

This bold vision, backed by David and Vincent’s market-leading expertise and track-record, convinced us that they're set to significantly impact transportation and logistics."

The funds will enable Pelikan to leverage its technological lead and launch its leasing offer.

Lead image: Markus Winkler.