Blink Charging acquires EV charging provider SemaConnect for $200M

By Riley Kaminer

The U.S. is on the road towards 500,000 vehicle chargers. And this road is paved with gold: the recently-passed bipartisan infrastructure law will provide $7.5 billion to make these charging stations go live.

One Miami Beach company continues to position itself at the forefront of the race to electrify and decarbonize the way we get around.

Publicly-traded EV charging company Blink Charging today announced that it has acquired SemaConnect, a leading provider of EV charging infrastructure.

The acquisition of SemaConnect will add 13,000 EV chargers to Blink’s existing network, on top of an additional 3,800 site host locations and more than 150,000 registered EV driver members.

“This is a transformative acquisition for the EV charging industry and for Blink,” Michael D. Farkas, founder and CEO of Blink Charging, said in a statement. “SemaConnect is an established and well-known EV charging company with a proven track record of success, strong relationships with its site host partners in both the public and private sectors, and best-in-class technical capabilities.”

With this acquisition, Blink Charging asserts that they will be the only EV charging company to offer complete vertical integration, including supply chain, engineering and in-house manufacturing capabilities.

This vertical integration is particularly important because of the Biden Administration’s “Buy American” initiatives, which require federal agencies to procure domestic materials and products. SemaConnect’s Maryland-based manufacturing facility brings Blink in compliance with the Buy American framework.

“SemaConnect has a robust hardware product line-up which complements Blink’s extensive software product offerings,” commented Farkas. “This includes our multi-language and multi-currency network, allowing Blink to have an EV charging station for any location across more than 20 countries and expanding.”

“In addition, we are particularly excited about the DCFC charger being developed by SemaConnect,” Farkas continued. This new technology will enable Blink to charge its customers’ vehicles more quickly. “These efforts allow Blink to significantly accelerate our DCFC speed to market while drastically reducing our R&D costs.”

Blink Charging’s engineering team will nearly double with this acquisition. The joint team will keep itself busy transitioning SemaConnect’s chargers to Blink’s network. That will enable Blink to rapidly expand to some of the most important – and sometimes most difficult to penetrate – EV markets, such as California.

Mahi Reddy, SemaConnect’s founder and CEO, drew parallels between the companies, including that they have been in the EV industry since its early days (Blink was founded in 1998, SemaConnect in 2008).

“We are excited to join Blink as we charge ahead in transforming the EV charging industry with flexible, reliable, and innovative solutions for customers around the globe,” said Reddy, who will join Blink’s Board of Directors.

This transaction comes on the heels of two other recent acquisitions from Blink Charging: EB Charging and Blue Corner in Europe.

“People used to throw me out of their offices and now they welcome me,” Farkas told Refresh Miami in March, underscoring the change in perception about electric vehicle charging. “People used to ask me if I was a crackpot, and now they think I’m a prophet.”

*Blink Charging participated in this year’s CoMotion conference in Miami.*

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Riley Kaminer

I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.