Electric vehicle charging company Wall Box Chargers plans to go public this year in a deal that would value the company at $1.5 billion.
The company, also known as Wallbox, announced Tuesday its plans to go public via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. II.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter and result in $330 million in proceeds to the charging company.
Wallbox, of Barcelona, Spain, develops residential, semipublic and public EV charging solutions, including Level 2 AC chargers for homes and businesses and its DC fast charger, the Supernova, for public use.
The company, founded in 2015, also offers a bidirectional DC charger, the Quasar, for home use. These chargers can send power from the car’s battery back to the grid, which could be critical in the event of power outages.
Wallbox has also developed proprietary residential and business software, myWallbox, which the company says can be used for real-time charger, fleet and energy management.
“Mass market adoption of electric vehicles is here, and with this comes a need for significant expansion of charging infrastructure, starting at the home,” CEO Enric Asuncion said in a statement. “We believe that ubiquitous access to affordable, efficient, and optimized EV charging is a critical part of the transition to electric vehicles.
“This transaction with Kensington will allow us to significantly increase our product development and manufacturing capacity as we expand sales globally to enhance the global transition to EVs.”
Asuncion is the co-founder of the company with Eduard Castañeda, its chief product officer. Both hold engineering backgrounds. Asuncion was previously program director of charging facilities at Tesla Motors Inc. in Europe. Before Wallbox, Castañeda founded telemetric data company TPVracing.
Wallbox says it has sold more than 100,000 units over the past six years across 67 countries. The company manufactures its chargers in Spain and China and has plans to add a U.S. manufacturing facility next year.
