Accelerace and Allstar Jacob Knobel invests in FLEXeCHARGE
Accelerace, together with Allstar mentor and alumni founder Jacob Knobel, invests in FLEXeCHARGE, a smart charging solution that enables electric vehicle drivers to charge their cars faster, greener, and cheaper.
Accelerace, along with Allstar mentor and founder Jacob Knobel, invests in FLEXeCHARGE, a smart charging solution that enables electric vehicle drivers to charge their cars faster, greener and cheaper.
The global shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and green energy is impossible without smart charging solutions to allocate the often limited power available. FLEXeCHARGE turns normal EV charging solutions into smart charging solutions. By applying state-of-the-art AI/ML-based charging management algorithms, FLEXeCHARGE makes electric vehicle charging faster, greener and cheaper.
Many existing charging solutions are not able to offer smart services, such as intelligent load management, integration of local energy resources, use of dynamic tariffs to reduce energy costs, etc. Therefore, load and energy management solutions such as FLEXeCHARGE play a key role in the transition to electric vehicles and (pun intended) have the power.
"Today, many different players sell e-Mobility products into the market. FLEXeCHARGE is the one that ties all ends together by providing smart charging solutions, which seamlessly integrate with all available charging components and provide cost-efficiency combined with a great charging experience.” - Jan Köster, Co-founder and CEO
The long-term vision is to better integrate charging infrastructures with the grid supply and the production of renewable energy.
From scientific research to real product.
The idea for FLEXeCHARGE grew over many years. Robert Brehm, a researcher and professor focused on energy and load management systems, spent 10+ years in the world of theory, scientific publications and teaching before co-founding FLEXeCHARGE together with Jan Köster and Max Brandt.
"For a long time, EVs and the related load management was a very theoretical endeavour and a topic for scientific publications and only a few people believed in a future with EVs. This has obviously changed (..) It was time to leave the world of theory and the multidiscipline founder team made FLEXeCHARGE become a reality. Now, FLEXeCHARGE has a great team of three founders with deep business, sales and technical competencies to make FLEXeCHARGE the leading provider of Smart Charging solutions.” - Robert Brehm, Co-founder and CTO
Jan has worked in the electronics and software industries for 20 years, holding senior positions in sales, marketing and strategy, and Max Brandt has technical and business degrees in industrial IoT and ecosystem strategy.
Backed by Allstar mentor Jacob Knobel.
We launched Accelerace Allstars in the summer of 2022 — a lifelong founder community where our portfolio companies get access to the Accelerace Allstars mentors. The Allstars are our most successful alumni founders, who are back at Accelerace as mentors and private investors to support the next generation of talented founders. One of them is Jacob Knobel — an alum from 2018 who founded Densou, a consultancy that helps advertisers and publishers (including The Guardian) to automate digital advertising. Jacob was listed on Forbes’ 30 under 30 in 2016, and exited Densou in 2018! He is an AI/ML expert that we are incredibly proud to work alongside, and who share our belief in FLEXeCHARGE.
“As every apartment complex and every office building needs to charge more electric vehicles, they also must buy more power from the electric utility providers. FLEXeCHARGE removes that cost using a great mix of IoT and AI. I am certain that FLEXeCHARGE will help adaption of electric vehicles by making it cheaper to build intelligent EV infrastructures.” - Jacob Knobel