Forum Mobility, a zero-emission trucking solutions provider, closed a $15 million Series A funding round and a new $400 million joint venture, both led by a fund sponsored by CBRE Investment Management, to provide comprehensive, zero-emission charging and vehicle solutions to drayage truck fleets and drivers. Homecoming Capital also participated in the Series A funding round and provided $100 million to the joint venture.
“We are building a comprehensive charging network for heavy-duty trucks to make the transition to electrification. This network will need a lot of infrastructure and real estate, and CBRE IM is the perfect partner to help us build charging where it’s needed most. Fleets can bring their trucks to our network, or we can provide electric trucks bundled with charging. Today we can provide a Class 8 electric truck, and all its charging needs, at a monthly price that’s competitive with diesel – without the emissions,” Matt LeDucq, CEO and co-founder of Forum Mobility, said. “With new rules coming soon from the California Air Resources Board, we help fleets and drivers looking to make the jump to electric.”
“The transportation sector is the largest contributor to GHG emissions, and heavy-duty transportation in particular has long been considered one of the hardest to decarbonize,” Robert Shaw, managing director, private infrastructure at CBRE Investment Management, said. “This marks our third investment in sustainable transportation since 2019 as we continue to execute on our strategy of investing in infrastructure assets that we believe will thrive in the new electric and digital economies. We are excited to form this strategic partnership with Forum Mobility and leverage the broader CBRE platform to supercharge the transition to sustainable, zero-emission logistics solutions.”
Currently proposed regulations from the California Air Resources Board would require all of California’s drayage fleet – approximately 30,000 trucks – to be zero-emission by 2035. Charging infrastructure is a key ingredient for success – the California Energy Commission estimates that to comply with these and other proposed vehicle regulations, California will need 157,000 medium and heavy-duty chargers by 2030.
“To address global warming at scale, we need solutions that support the transition to electric vehicles, especially in hard-to-decarbonize sectors like heavy duty trucking,” Rodrigo Prudencio, principal at Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, said. “Forum Mobility’s solution will help small business owners electrify their transportation fleets, remove air pollution from California’s ports, and provide the charging infrastructure needed to support the growing use of electric trucks.”
“Electric trucks work. But to deploy them at scale, we need to build a tremendous amount of charging infrastructure. The Forum Mobility team has construction in their DNA – and is perfectly suited to deploy the infrastructure required to enable drayage truck electrification. We are excited to support their efforts to reduce emissions from heavy duty trucking along California’s port corridors,” Pat Arnold of Homecoming Capital, said.
Forum Mobility’s existing seed investors all participated in the Series A, including Obvious Ventures, Edison International, Overture and Homecoming Capital. New Series A investors include CBRE Investment Management, Elemental Excelerator and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.