Last week, Power Now, the first power bank rental service in Ukraine, raised $500,000 from local business angels and entrepreneurs, Ukrainian tech blog AIN.UA reported. Anna Osipenko, who founded startup, remains its primary investor.
Power Now offers the opportunity to rent smartphone chargers from an exchange station and return it after charging. The cost ranges from 10 hryvnias ($0.35) for 30 minutes to 50 hryvnias ($1.77) for 24 hours.
The service is already deployed in five major Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv (Kharkov, 10 stations), Kyiv (Kiev, 170 stations), Lutsk (1 station), Lviv (10 stations) and Odesa (12 stations).
The raised funds will be used to improve equipment, namely the chargers in the stations. The equipment is handed over for management, distribution, and maintenance to a Power Now service team in each region.
Launched earlier this year, the company plans, in 2021, to bring the total number of stations to one thousand and expand service coverage to smaller Ukrainian cities, reports AIN.UA.