Jesse White is the co-founder and chief technology officer at ReliON, a new enterprise that aims to ensure the chargers that power Canada’s growing contingent of EVs are in good running order.
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With more electric vehicles hitting Canadian highways every year, Ottawa entrepreneur Jesse White is revved up about his company’s future.
The Gloucester native is the co-founder and chief technology officer at ReliON, a new enterprise that aims to ensure the chargers that power Canada’s growing contingent of EVs are in good running order.
“There are still a lot of reliability problems with (EV) charging infrastructure,” said White, who was recruited last year to help get ReliON off the ground by Diagram Ventures, a Montreal-based investment firm that specializes in launching and scaling startups in areas such as fintech and climate-tech.
“It needs to be reliable for it to pick up – otherwise people will have fears and anxieties about not being able to charge their vehicles.”
ReliON, whose executive team also includes Montreal-based co-founder and CEO Benoit Lacroix, announced this week it has raised a $3-million funding round led by Diagram Ventures with participation from MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, AQC Capital, Anges Québec and Cycle Momentum.
The cash infusion comes at a pivotal time for the fledgling business, which is poised to pilot its technology with EV charging providers in Quebec and Nova Scotia. White expects the six-person company’s headcount to more than double over the next year or so as it responds to surging demand for electric vehicles and the machines that keep them full of juice.
According to market research firm BMI, about 180,000 EVs were sold in Canada last year, a 49 per cent increase from the previous year. Transport Canada says there are now more than 28,000 EV charging stations across the country, up more than 30 per cent over 2023.
Those numbers are expected to rise dramatically over the next decade in the wake of the federal government’s recent mandate that 100 per cent of all new vehicles in Canada will need to be zero-emission by 2035.
But as the number of EVs grows, so do concerns about the ability of Canada’s charging infrastructure to keep them powered up.
ReliON estimates that as many as 30 per cent of all EV chargers are out of service at any given time due to a range of factors, from software and hardware faults to vandalism and communication issues.
As a result, the firm is gearing up for what it sees as a major business opportunity.
“There’s a significant market there already, and the number of chargers is expected to grow quite significantly as EVs pick up between now and 2030 and beyond,” said White, who studied mathematics at Concordia University before entering the tech industry.
Most EV charging stations communicate with central management systems through a platform called Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP). ReliON’s software taps into OCPP to remotely monitor the flow of data within charging networks and spot issues such as connectivity breakdowns and potential flaws in the infrastructure’s hardware.
“We’re able to take all those different things together and assess if the charger has a problem or is likely to have a problem,” explained White, who previously served as head of R&D at OpenNMS Group, a firm that monitors telecommunications networks for large enterprise clients.
Developing a reliable diagnostic tech stack has been no small feat – “It’s a lot more complicated than it looks once you start poking in there,” White noted – but ReliON is confident its engineers have done just that.
Meanwhile, the company is scouting partners that can provide maintenance and repair services, enabling the firm to offer an end-to-end solution to its clients.
“We don’t just want to grow for the sake of growth, but rather do that in lockstep with adoption,” White said.
ReliON is the first company created out of Diagram Ventures’ new ClimateTech fund. Its founders hope it will eventually become an indispensable part of the Canadian EV landscape.
“ReliON is dedicated to ensuring the seamless operation of EV charging infrastructure, empowering businesses and individuals alike to embrace electric mobility with confidence,” Lacroix said in a statement.
“This latest round of funding enables us to expand our reach and firmly establish ourselves as the trusted partner for optimizing uptime and performance in the EV charging ecosystem.”
