Liberty Global Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of cable and telecommunications firm Liberty Global, has carved out a UK-based electric vehicle charging business called Liberty Charge in a 50-50 partnership with fund manager Zouk Capital.
Liberty Charge will implement street-side vehicle charging points in neighbourhoods across densely populated UK cities which lack parking space for household-specific chargers, working in tandem with local governments and operators of existing charge points.
The chargers will leverage electricity and communications capacity from existing underground cables owned by Liberty Global’s UK telecoms and cable subsisidary, Virgin Media.
Jason Simpson, vice-president for global energy and utilities at Liberty Global, said: “This investment from Zouk re-enforces our belief that there is significant value in leveraging Virgin Media’s wide-ranging infrastructure and connectivity capabilities into new and fast-growing sectors such as e-mobility and energy.”
Zouk Capital manages Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF), a UK government-founded initiative tasked with developing the country’s electric vehicle infrastructure.