Proterra raises $50 million in equity, debt

San Bruno, California – Electric bus company Proterra has raised $55 million from investors to help the company scale up production to meet growing demand. Proterra has closed a $30 million Series 4 equity round led by $19 million from several new strategic investors. The existing major investors in Proterra added $11 million of equity.

"Increasingly Proterra's products and technology are earning industry credibility as fleet customers place second, third, and fourth orders for Proterra's zero emission transit vehicles. And while the company has made great strides within the last year, we're really looking forward to supporting Proterra through this next stage of expansion," says Michael Linse, a partner at KPCB and Proterra board member.

In conjunction with the equity financing, Proterra has completed a debt financing in an amount up to $25 million with Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. The strategic debt financing will provide long-term debt capital to fully fund Proterra's new Advanced Manufacturing facility in California, which was recently awarded a California Energy Commission grant to support clean vehicle technology growth.

In addition, the Hercules debt facility expands Proterra's access to working capital, a critical component of growth financing as production volume increases.

By simultaneously securing a strategic debt facility and a large growth equity financing, Proterra will finish the second quarter of 2015 fully funded to expand into the West Coast markets through its new California manufacturing center, ramp production to meet growing demand, and continue to invest heavily in future generations of EV transit technology.

"This is a pivotal time for Proterra as we launch the latest generation of our technology and double our production capacity," says Ryan Popple, Proterra CEO. "These financings are a powerful source of growth capital and will accelerate the adoption of EV technology in transit."

Source: Proterra Inc.