EIC Accelerator funding will support HeyCharge’s SecureCharge FLEX technology, aimed at enabling reliable EV charging in underground garages while reducing installation costs and expanding home charging access for apartment residents in Europe.
Munich-based EV charging technology company HeyCharge has been awarded a €2.5 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator. The company, backed by BMW i Ventures, Statkraft Ventures, and Y Combinator, has raised €6.3 million in private funding to date.
The funding comes as EV charging access in residential and workplace settings remains a challenge despite the expansion of public charging infrastructure. Around 200 million people in Europe live in multi-unit residential buildings, many of which include underground or semi-underground parking areas where mobile and Wi-Fi coverage can be limited.
Conventional EV chargers typically rely on continuous internet connectivity for authentication and billing, which can reduce reliability in these environments and increase installation costs due to additional communication infrastructure requirements.
HeyCharge’s SecureCharge platform is designed to address these limitations through offline operation using one-time cryptographic tokens generated on a user’s smartphone for authentication. According to the company, this approach allows chargers to function without continuous connectivity and can reduce installation costs by removing the need for additional communications infrastructure.
Commenting on EV charging challenges, Chris Cardé, founder and CEO of HeyCharge, said that underground parking areas can create difficulties for chargers requiring continuous internet access.
Our technology works 100 per cent reliably even in underground garages, and because we’ve eliminated the need for communications infrastructure – the cabling, the specialist labour, the ongoing maintenance – we cut installation costs by more than 40 per cent. That’s how you democratise home charging.
HeyCharge’s co-founder and CBDO Dr Robert Lasowski said the grant reflects confidence in the company’s approach and will support scaling the technology from existing deployments to wider adoption across Europe.
The grant will support the SecureCharge FLEX project, accelerating development, certification, and large-scale pilot deployments of HeyCharge’s EV charging platform across multiple European countries. The company said the project is intended to improve EV charging access in apartment buildings by addressing reliability and installation cost challenges.