Next stop, Nasdaq! EV battery-swapping network Gogoro is going public

The battery-swapping Goliath known as Gogoro is going public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in a monumental deal set to value the company at around US $2.3 billion.

Taiwan-based Gogoro has been named the global leader in electric vehicle battery-swapping systems, and currently operates over 800,000 battery packs on the road.

The company has grown considerably over the last several years and announced major partnerships allowing it to enter the massive markets of India and China.

Now Gogoro’s string of industry-shaking announcements continues with this revelation of Gogoro’s plans to go public.

Instead of a traditional IPO, Gogoro has struck a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal with Poema Global Holdings, Corp.

After closing, which is expected in the first quarter of 2022, Gogoro will be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol GGR.

The deal is expected to land Gogoro an additional nearly $550 million, including $345 million held by Poema.

A private investment in a public entity (PIPE) deal is expected to bring in $250 million funded by strategic partners including Hon Hai (Foxconn) Technology Group and GoTo Group, the largest technology group in Indonesia, plus investments from Generation Investment Management, Taiwan’s National Development Fund, Temasek and Gogoro’s founding investor Dr. Samuel Yin of Ruentex Group.

The deal will help fund Gogoro’s quick-paced plans for international growth. After spending many years developing and perfecting its battery-swapping network in Taiwan, Gogoro now has its sights set on bringing its technology to the rest of the world.

As Gogoro’s founder and CEO Dr. Horace Luke explained in a call with Electrek:

“The proceeds of around half a billion dollars are great for expansion to be able to offer more as we expand into these markets with our partners, as well as to continue to develop our technology and systems, bringing our innovation to the next level.

We also want to ensure that we can continue to bulk up as a team. This decade of electric mobility is starting – there’s no doubt that by the end of this decade, electric mobility will be the dominant mode of transportation that people are choosing as they buy new vehicles. So we want, right now at the beginning of this decade, to have the right structure and access to the right capital. And that includes being listed on such a prestigious platform like the Nasdaq that hosts a number of technology giants – that’s where tech giants and high growth companies all go to be validated. And I think that level of transparency and regulations and governance will allow us to play on the global stage, and we are very excited about that.”

In less than five years, Gogoro has grown its local Taiwanese subscription base to over 400,000 subscribers who swap batteries in their electric scooters. The company has raised over US $1 billion in revenue in that time just in its domestic market.

Now with the company expanding into the Chinese and Indian markets that dwarf the size of the Taiwanese market, Gogoro has placed itself in a very lucrative position to employ its battery-swapping technology in the largest two-wheeler markets in the world.

While Gogoro builds its own highly acclaimed electric scooters in Taiwan, the company’s biggest opportunity for growth is the proliferation of its battery-swapping networks.

As Gogoro’s CFO Bruce Aitken explained to Electrek:

“What we’ve learned through our partnerships with the big vehicle makers is that we don’t need to make our own vehicles in every country, because our goal is to accumulate subscribers on our network who are riding regularly, who are making the world a cleaner and greener place through their riding of electric vehicles.”

Gogoro’s batteries serve as an open platform that other manufacturers can use as the power source for their own electric vehicle designs.

That allows manufacturers to leapfrog toward marketization of their new electric vehicles by relying on Gogoro’s battery expertise. It also provides a handy solution for the “But what if I don’t have a place to charge?” problem that faces many apartment dwellers and urban residents.

Major manufacturers like Yamaha, Hero, and Yadea have done exactly that, partnering with Gogoro to fast-track their electric two-wheelers to production with Gogoro’s batteries powering the way.

Light electric vehicles like electric scooters make attractive targets for Gogoro’s batteries due to their small size and relatively high efficiencies. While full-size electric car batteries would require complicated and costly battery-swapping infrastructure (RIP Better Place), Gogoro’s GoStations are simple to install and easy to use.

But it’s not just electric vehicles that could benefit from Gogoro’s technology. While we often think of Gogoro as an electric scooter company – and to be fair they do manufacture very slick looking scooters – Gogoro is really a distributed energy company.

Its batteries can be used for a wide variety of uses, offering portable power for nearly any mobile device. The GoStations themselves can even provide backup power to the local grid during natural disasters.

With Gogoro’s upcoming transition to a public company and the huge cash infusion that will bring, the future looks bright for Gogoro as the leading standard in swappable batteries.