Evolve Energy

Disrupting Hotel EV charging with Smart outlets + AI SaaS with room-key access, dynamic load balancing, and fast, low-cost installs turning parking into revenue, compliant + future-ready.

Our MVP is live at a busy north Lake Tahoe Resort, and we have 21 other properties who have signed up for early access to cover approximately 330 parking spaces with a 5 year LTV of ~$880k.

We are in early conversations with IHG corporate energy and sustainability procurement leads. Potential brand wide approval in the works.

Three provisional patents filed covering 6 inventions, including room key integration, chargerless and autonomous architecture, and wireless authentication, erroneous and safe use detection needed to obtain full compliance and certifications.

Evolve Energy’s customers are primarily hotel owners, asset managers, and property developers across North America, especially in EV-forward regions like California. These customers tend to be professionals aged 35 to 60 who are financially responsible for their properties and focused on enhancing guest satisfaction, complying with ESG mandates, and increasing revenue. They manage or own mid-scale franchised hotels, upscale resorts, or Class-A apartment buildings and condominiums. They care about competitive amenities, cost-effective infrastructure upgrades, and long-term ROI.
The addressable market includes around 62,000 hotels and motels in the U.S. and Canada, along with more than 370,000 multifamily communities. When you expand to all verticals hotels, residential, public sector, retail, and workplaces the total market includes over 1.5 million potential charging sites in North America. Within five years, about 350,000 of these sites are expected to adopt EV charging, and Evolve is targeting 4,000 to 5,000 of them as obtainable customers.
This market is growing quickly. Hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott are deploying tens of thousands of chargers, and nearly 20% of hotel guests now expect EV charging. California alone has already reached 25% EV adoption, with counties like Santa Clara hitting 43%. These trends are supported by government policies like CALGreen and many other local, state and federal programs. At full market maturity, the EV infrastructure space could represent over $22 billion in hardware sales and billions more in annual software revenue. Even capturing a small slice of this is a massive opportunity for Evolve Energy.

Hotels struggle to offer reliable, affordable EV charging.
Legacy chargers are expensive to install, hard to maintain, and don’t integrate with hotel systems, resulting in poor guest experiences and making it difficult to scale. Meanwhile, regulations like California’s CALGreen code now mandate that 50% of parking at newly permitted hotels be electrified, with similar rules emerging nationwide.

Evolve Energy fills a gap in the hardware and software hotels need to deploy charging at scale.
Our modular smart NEMA 14-50 outlets, paired with a AI powered SaaS platform, enable room key-activated charging, dynamic load balancing, centralized control, and AI upsells. We reduce costs by over 75% and enable scalable, low maintenance deployments. Our patents cover autonomous architecture, wireless authentication, and proximity detection, key to improving the guest experience and building the first revenue grade EV smart outlet. Hotels adopt us to boost RevPAR and increase guest loyalty.

Evolve Energy operates in a unique position within the EV charging space, as its core product, smart EV outlets tailored for hotels, has no direct competitors focused solely on hospitality. However, there are several startups and legacy players competing indirectly, mostly targeting multifamily housing, urban curbside markets, or generalized EV infrastructure.
Direct competitors include:

Pando Electric – Focused on multifamily, backed by over $10M in equity and grants, offering smart L2 outlets with native cloud dashboards

Orange Charger – Multifamily-focused with a strong seed round ($9M) and native load management via their “OrangeOS” platform

GoPowerEV – Specializes in modular outlet towers for apartments with partial grant funding ($10.7M total)

Plugzio – Offers ultra-low-cost L1 outlets but lacks advanced SaaS features or regulatory alignment

itselectric – Targets curbside installations in urban settings; raised over $11M but has no hospitality integrations

Indirect competitors and alternatives include:

ChargePoint and Blink – Traditional EVSE providers with expensive hardware, kiosk-based interaction, and limited hospitality alignment

EVPassport and EV Connect – Software-first platforms that offer APIs or white-label solutions but require integration with expensive L2 hardware

Tesla UWC – Has offered free-to-install destination chargers at hotels; but have recently made an effort to reduce deploying charging at hotels

Oodles Energy – A hotel-focused CaaS (charging-as-a-service) model, but with less regulatory clarity and without smart outlet-based flexibility

Unlike these players, Evolve is the only one offering a fully integrated, regulation-compliant smart outlet platform with hotel PMS integration and room key access, optimized for dual-outlet deployments. No competitor has cleared both CTEP and NTEP regulatory hurdles or designed their product specifically for the hospitality environment.

This leaves Evolve in a strong first-mover position in a high-growth but underserved segment. While competitors like Orange and Pando are well-funded, their primary focus is still on multifamily, giving Evolve a window to dominate the hospitality niche before others pivot toward it.

We have clear, defensible advantages that competitors can’t easily replicate. First, we’re on track to be the only company bringing a CTEP/NTEP-compliant smart outlet to market meaning property owners can legally sell electricity per kWh through our hardware. That’s something competitors like Pando, Orange, GoPowerEV, and Plugzio can’t do. In fact, Pando’s outlet is only certified when it’s paired with a locked box and a specific mobile charger, which defeats the whole point of having a smart outlet in the first place.
What really sets us apart is our Load Signature Analysis (LSA) system. It’s patent-pending tech that lets us detect when someone is using an unauthorized device with extra hardware needed. It solves the exact enforcement problem others are trying to patch together with physical afterthought tamper solutions.
Beyond that, we're building the only EV platform truly made for hotels. Our outlets integrate with room keys, work with PMS systems, support UWB walk-up charging, and can be white-labeled. The hardware is modular and upgradeable. The software is offline-resilient, scalable, and tuned for hospitality, not just another generic EVSE dashboard. These aren’t gimmicks, they’re deliberate choices to solve real problems in a way others haven’t. And with multiple patents in play, it’s not something they can easily copy.

Evolve Energy plans to sell its smart EV outlets for $1,500 MSRP per unit, with each unit serving two parking spaces. On top of the hardware, the company offers a subscription-based SaaS platform with three pricing tiers: Basic at $29/month, Pro at $49/month, and Enterprise at $99/month, depending on the property’s size and software features. Including a very limited free version for small clients. Evolve also participates in a 10% revenue share from EV charging sessions handled through its platform.
Over the next five years, Evolve expects to scale from 100 hotel sites in 2027 to 820 cumulative by 2030. Based on the financial model, annual revenue is projected to grow from $1.8M in 2027 to $9.36M by 2030, with the company reaching EBITDA profitability by early 2029 at just 340 deployed hotel sites less than 1% of the U.S. hospitality market.
These projections reflect a modest share of the total serviceable market, indicating considerable upside. At scale, the company expects to maintain strong gross margins that expand from 32% to over 60% by 2030 as hardware costs decrease and SaaS revenue grows. By then, software subscriptions are projected to make up nearly half of total revenue, supporting a high-margin, recurring revenue model.

We use a Razor + Blade model:

Streams:
◦ Hardware $1,710/device (~23% GM)
◦ SaaS $52.50/stall/mo avg (~86% GM)
◦ Energy Revenue share ~$3.65/stall/mo
• MRR = stall $49/mo x 20 stalls = hotel $982/mo
• One-time hardware margin: ~$4.0k at install

Planned Expansions: API licensing, centralized controller for large sites, and a 3-phase hardware variant

We’re raising capital to take Evolve Energy from early pilot validation to a full commercial launch. The investment will fund the completion of our modular EV charging hardware, the development of our hospitality-focused SaaS platform, and the certifications required to bring our product to market. A significant portion of the capital, roughly 38% will support hardware engineering, including schematic finalization, prototype testing (EVT/DVT), and preparation for UL and FCC safety certifications. Another 28% will go toward building our software stack, including the cloud dashboard, mobile interface, dynamic load management, and payment integration tailored for hotels.

We run lean by design. To date, we’ve deployed just under $14,000 across prototyping, pilot preparation, branding, software tools, and legal/IP filings while maintaining a net cash-positive position of over $40,000. The team is small, focused, and execution-driven. Approximately 16.5% of the raise will fund custom tooling and beta manufacturing, 12.5% will support general operations and GTM readiness, and 4.5% is reserved for regulatory filings and patent prosecution. This next phase of funding is about unlocking scale: completing certification, launching revenue-generating pilots, and laying the groundwork for a capital-efficient national rollout.

We are targeting a $2.8 million pre-seed round at a pre-money valuation of $11.2 million, which implies a post-money valuation of $14 million. In exchange, we are offering up to 20% of the company to investors in this round.

Our cap table has been intentionally structured to maintain strong founder control post-financing, while preserving a 16% employee stock option pool to support hiring, advisor incentives, and early team retention. The planned investor mix includes a lead institutional VC, one or more strategic corporate partners, and a small allocation for angels or syndicates who bring operational support or sector-specific insight.

Other companies in the smart outlet EV space, such as Orange Charger and Pando Electric, have successfully raised seed-stage rounds at valuations above $22 million, even without full compliance or hospitality-native offerings. Their traction confirms investor appetite in the category, and we’re confident in our ability to raise future rounds as we execute. While we’re firm on protecting long-term equity value, we’re also open to structuring this round flexibly based on investor fit, contribution, and alignment. Final terms will be shaped through direct conversation and mutual conviction.

Evolve Energy operates in a fast-moving environment where electrification, regulation, and hospitality converge. While the opportunity is massive, we’re aware of several key risks. Regulatory uncertainty is a primary concern, our smart receptacle challenges existing definitions of EV charging equipment, and while we’re designing for full UL, CTEP, and NTEP compliance, any shifts in interpretation (such as stricter display requirements) could delay certification or limit our ability to support per-kWh billing. Competitively, well-funded startups like Pando and Orange could pivot into hospitality with aggressive pricing or partial compliance claims, muddying the waters before regulators catch up. Larger incumbents like Tesla or ChargePoint could also move downmarket and leverage their brand and distribution to take share in midscale hospitality. Adoption could be slower than anticipated, some hotel owners may delay purchases due to cost concerns, limited familiarity with incentives, or the perception that a basic outlet or free Tesla charger is “good enough.” On the execution side, scaling requires alignment across certifications, hardware production, and onboarding. Any slippage, whether in manufacturing timelines, pilot deployment, or support capacity, could limit growth at a critical time. Ironically, there’s also upside risk: demand could come faster than we can fulfill it. CALGreen mandates, coupled with national incentives, could trigger a surge of hotel orders that overwhelms our early supply chain. If not carefully staged, rapid growth could stress onboarding, service quality, or manufacturing. That said, Evolve is built for adaptability. Our modular architecture, regulatory-first roadmap, and deep focus on hospitality give us room to pivot, whether that means integrating third-party hardware, offering white-label SaaS, or embedding into other platforms. Once our SaaS backbone is established, it becomes a durable, high-margin revenue stream independent of hardware. The long game is about owning the intelligence layer of EV charging, regardless of who builds the outlet.

Evolve Energy has not participated in a formal incubator or accelerator, but we were a finalist for the gBETA Reno program by gener8tor. In the final round, we were told we were a strong candidate, but the selection committee ultimately prioritized startups with more established traction and clearer short-term growth plans specifically tied to Reno. The feedback reinforced the strength of our broader vision and helped sharpen our go-to-market focus. While we've built momentum independently, securing early pilots and client interest, filing multiple patents, and advancing regulatory compliance, we remain open to the right accelerator or strategic partner aligned with our national and hospitality-centric growth trajectory.

As of now, Evolve Energy has not yet won a formal startup competition or received an external award. However, the company has been recognized as a finalist for the gBETA Reno accelerator.

Evolve Energy has filed three provisional patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):

Application No. 63/804,462
Title: Credential-Based Access Control for Electric Vehicle Charging
Description: Enables EV charging authorization via hotel room keys, NFC cards, or mobile credentials, integrated directly with hotel PMS systems.
Docket: EVLV-M00-PRV

Application No. 63/804,474
Title: Adaptive, Modular, and Autonomous-Ready EV Charging
Description: Covers modular smart receptacle hardware, centralized switching architecture, wireless ISO 15118 compatibility via Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, and UWB-based secure proximity authorization.
Docket: EVLV-M01-PRV

Application No. 63/804,480
Title: Load Signal Analysis for Unauthorized EV Detection
Description: Real-time waveform analysis to detect unauthorized or unmanaged mobile EV charging on outlets, enabling backend enforcement and billing without extra hardware.
Docket: EVLV-M02-PRV

These filings support Evolve’s broader IP strategy to secure critical infrastructure, compliance workflows, and user access controls that are foundational to smart EV charging in the hospitality sector