Recurrent Raises $3.5M Seed Round to Provide Electric Vehicle Battery Reports

I’m really excited to announce today that we closed our seed funding round, in a way-oversubscribed $3.5 million raise that brings an incredible set of investors into the company.

The round was led by Wireframe Ventures, with participation from PSL Ventures, Vulcan Capital, Prelude Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Ascend.VC and AAA Washington. 

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Why’d they invest?

They saw where the puck is going in the electric vehicle (EV) space: mainstream drivers are increasingly moving into EV buying, used sales are ramping up quickly and there’s uncertainty on the battery health and range for those used sales.

We got out ahead of the industry, collecting millions of data from thousands of vehicles across manufacturers, and putting together an amazing data science team to understand, model and communicate how individual EV batteries age in different conditions. 

Why’d we pick them?

Every one of our new investors is here for a reason beyond their money. Our momentum and timing gave us the ability to make sure of that.

• Paul and Harsh at Wireframe Ventures had such thoughtful early engagement with us during the pitch process that they helped us reframe how we thought about our long-term strategy (in a positive way) even before it was clear that they’d be leading the round. Their focus on early stage sustainability was the filter for us, but it was the people that sealed it.
• Mike, Ben, Greg, Julie, Geoff, T.A., Palvi and the rest of the team at PSL Ventures have been champions since the idea stage a year ago. Without them, I’d have an idea and a lot of regret for having not taken a shot.
• Stuart and Y.B. at Vulcan Capital are quietly becoming the heart of Seattle’s venture community. It’s great to be able to learn from them earlier than they usually invest.
• Tim at Prelude Ventures was an amazing backer for my previous company EnergySavvy for years. Investing in startups working on climate change issues is becoming popular, but Prelude was there and active way before it was fashionable and will be there for the duration.
• Emily has built an amazing team at Powerhouse Ventures. Our engagement with everyone there -- Ella, Tavi, Alexandra, Marie, Ry and the rest of the crew -- has been consistently incredible and really stands out.
• Kirby at Ascend.VC is one the Seattle seed community’s new treasures. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur in the region, you should 1) read his Seattle Startup Toolkit and 2) talk to him. ‍
• AAA Washington is an unusual strategic investor for a company at our stage. Zach, Jim and their teams have been amazing. We’re really excited about the potential to work with AAA, as an iconic brand in American driving. We’ll have more detail on that “work with” front soon, but not announcing anything public yet.

So what’s next?

We already have a unique data asset in the form of 1M data points from 2500+ current EV drivers, but that’s just the start. Our monthly battery report subscribers have doubled in the last month and, while they’re joining to help push the category forward, they also really like the monthly report: "It’s like a wellness check for my car!"

This seed funding means we’re starting immediately team growth, focused on R&D (with new software engineers and data scientists) and then sales and marketing (with a particular emphasis on dealer outreach and online marketers with experience in the retail auto category). If you’re fired up about what we’re doing, we’d love to hear from you.

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- Scott