“The German market is ready for us”: kW Solutions receives investment from transport experts

The Vienna-based mobility startup kW-Solutions, which offers cost-optimized charging for the transport and residential real estate sectors with its intelligent energy manager “Charly”, has received new investment. Transport entrepreneurs Günther Reder (Reder Transporte) and Hubert Schlager (Schlager Transporte) are now on board at the young company founded in 2021. We spoke with Korbinian Kasinger, founder and CEO of kW-Solutions, about his startup and the new investment.

Tell us a bit about kW-Solutions first.

Korbinian Kasinger: We’ve been on the market since 2021 and we basically offer intelligent charging infrastructure that we manage as a service provider. This covers topics like billing, THG quota trading, access management, and so on. And on the other hand, we have two very strong focus markets. One is residential construction, specifically multi-family buildings, and the other is logistics. The core focus is always on optimizing every charging process 100% for our customers.

We work very closely with our customers’ usage behavior as well as other factors like photovoltaic systems, battery status, and so on. We consolidate these factors into an algorithm and then always allocate the cheapest and most cost-optimized electricity.

What makes you special in the e-mobility market?

We are the only ones in this field who focus on making every charging process as cheap as possible. The competition tends to think about how to make every charging process as expensive as possible.

With our software Charly, we combine dynamic energy tariffs with photovoltaic systems and battery systems while taking user behavior into account. This is unique on the market and significantly reflects the zeitgeist, because everyone wants to save money today.

E-mobility is currently under massive pressure because governments like Donald Trump’s want to promote oil again and tend to reject renewable energies. What we do must inevitably become a business case.

Given the current political situation regarding e-mobility: Do you see a general decline? And do you see kW-Solutions well positioned?

Yes, we’re currently managing around 2,500 charging points in Austria and surrounding countries. That puts us in a good position. Registration numbers for electric cars and electric trucks continue to rise. But we do believe that politics could provide a bit more certainty. Right-wing populist parties are usually fundamentally opposed to renewables, and many conservative parties are already adopting many of these views. That’s why, for example, the combustion engine phase-out has now been postponed.

Due to these political reversals, many mobility companies feel uncertain these days. It’s quite different in China, which is why the mobility transition works much better there. BYD sold by far the most electric cars last year. There’s simply more determination on the technology question.

Let’s talk about the investment: How did this deal come about? Did you already work with Günther Reder and Hubert Schlager before?

Hubert Schlager has been our customer since 2023. He’s an absolute pioneer in the field of electrification in heavy transport. He’s currently converting his entire fleet. Günther Reder is a very significant and successful Upper Austrian logistics entrepreneur.

The German market is ready for us, and with this growth capital, we’re ready for the shift to Germany. We also wanted a strategic partner from the transport industry.

What do the two investors expect from you?

I think they primarily expect the e-mobility topic to get a boost. They believe in our solutions and want to be part of the technology transformation.

Can you say anything about the size of the investment?

We’ve agreed with the investors not to make the amount public.

Apart from a financial investment: Are Günther Reder and Hubert Schlager also supporting you with know-how?

Yes, absolutely. They will also actively take on the role of business angel and strategic input partner.

Back to kW-Solutions: What revenue and employee count did you reach last year?

Last year we achieved just under 3 million euros in revenue and just under 20 employees. This year we want to significantly expand our revenue. We have very ambitious growth plans and the current business year has started incredibly well. We had more orders in January than ever before.

What are you doing with the new investment?

We want to significantly expand our business in the transport industry, both in Austria and in Germany. We’re currently opening a location in Munich. This is mainly about winning employees, building structures, and acquiring customers. In Germany, our focus markets are the transport industry and the real estate industry.

Beyond that, we’re currently working on an initiative called “Charge with Friends”. This is about setting up a network where one logistics company can drive to another logistics company that’s on its route and charge there under moderate conditions bilaterally. It’s basically a networking of logistics companies.