Executive summary:
Joshua Aviv
Over my career as Founder/CEO of SparkCharge, I have raised more than $50MM to advance EV Charging Infrastructure and Clean Tech Initiatives across the country. I am proud to be included as one of Business Insider’s 100 business leaders who are innovating, sparking trends, and tackling global challenges. And I was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Another highlight: SparkCharge was featured on Shark Tank, winning partnerships with both Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner. To top it all off, though, I had the distinct honor of introducing President Joseph R. Biden (a fellow Syracuse alum) at the CHIPS And Science Act bill signing at the White House.
What is your field of expertise?
I have more than 10 years of experience in Clean Tech and Automotive OEM Industry. My focus is on democratizing access to EV Charging and Accelerating EV adoption for everyone and designing programs that help companies and government partners deploy a gridless charging infrastructure. For all that, though, my degrees are in Economics and Information Management & Data Science.
Describe your journey to where you are today.
I’m an economics and computer science guy; if you put my passion for data and money/market sides of me together, clean tech was a natural outcome. I actually started SparkCharge in my dorm room at Syracuse University in 2014, thanks to a challenge from my environmental economics professor, Dr. Pete Wilcoxen. He asked his undergrads to stay after class one day to start brainstorming a solution to the biggest obstacle to the mass adoption of electric vehicles: range anxiety. I was the only student who stayed behind that day.
At the same time, I happened to be part of the Blackstone Launchpad at Syracuse University, which helps college students grow their ideas for startups. Their mentorship was pivotal.
I came up with the idea for SparkCharge as the world’s first mobile electric vehicle charging network, Currently, powered by our mobile charger, The Roadie. Since that brainstorming session, I have grown SparkCharge from a dorm room startup to a 53-employee company with locations in four states and customers around the world. And now I am really proud to be an advisor to future entrepreneurs who are taking part in the Launchpad.
What does your company do, for whom, and how does it fit into the bigger picture of solving global issues with clean tech?
At SparkCharge, we created the world’s largest mobile electric vehicle charging network. This network is now a reality due to three key factors: hardware, software, and brilliant customers. The Roadie charging system is a portable, powerful, modular charging solution that makes DC fast charging possible anywhere regardless of infrastructure.
The app and EV power delivery service, called Currently, enables EV drivers to get charged wherever and whenever they want. SparkCharge empowers EV owners to move away from their range anxiety with on-demand charging-as-a-service.
The current global economy tells the rest of the story: rising (and unstable) oil prices, widespread adoption of electric vehicles, and growing confidence in cleantech solutions mean SparkCharge is meeting a critical need right now.
What do you think is the most important thing we can be doing in terms of clean tech solutions?
SparkCharge was founded with the goal of democratizing access to clean energy. The most important thing we can do, as a whole, to support cleantech solutions is to develop convenient and accessible tech that seamlessly integrates into people’s daily lives and promotes the adoption of clean technologies and increases EV adoption.
LinkedIn: Joshua Aviv