Ample
Robot stations that swapped EV batteries for fleets: Chapter 11 after USD 330 million raised
- Founded
- 2014
- Closed
- 2025
- Lifespan
- 11 years
- Total funding
- $330 million
- Peak valuation
- $1 billion
- Became a unicorn
- 2021
- Country
- United States
- City
- San Francisco
- Sector
- Mobility and transport
- Founders
- Khaled Hassounah, John de Souza
- Investors
- Moore Strategic Ventures, Shell Ventures, Repsol, Eneos Holdings, Mitsubishi Corporation
- At its peak
- USD 1 billion valuation in 2021, USD 330 million raised in total
- Cause of closure
- Ran out of cash
What did it do?
Ample was a battery swapping company started by Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza in the San Francisco Bay Area. It split a vehicle's battery into modules and used an adapter plate matched to each model, so a carmaker could offer a swappable battery without redesigning the car. Its first stations opened around the Bay Area in 2021, and it later reached Madrid with Stellantis and Tokyo with Mitsubishi.
Why did it shut down?
Ample raised USD 190 million across two rounds in 2021 and reached a USD 1 billion valuation. In November 2024 it took USD 25 million from Mitsubishi Corporation, but that was only the first close of a hoped-for USD 75 million round, and it had tens of stations and a few hundred vehicles at the time. Projects in Madrid and Tokyo began in 2025. A cash shortage then stopped most operations and the workforce fell from 198 to two. In December 2025 the company filed for Chapter 11 in Texas and took a USD 6 million loan from Twelve Bridge Capital. The filing pointed to shrinking investment in renewable energy and a shortage of cash.
The story
Ample's answer to the charging time problem was simple: do not charge, swap. Khaled Hassounah and John de Souza brought back the idea after Better Place had lost nearly a billion dollars on it, this time with a different design. The battery was split into modules, and an adapter plate meant carmakers did not have to redesign their vehicles.
The story began with Uber drivers in the Bay Area in 2021. That same year the company reached a USD 1 billion valuation. Energy groups such as Shell, Repsol and Eneos invested, and Stellantis and Mitsubishi followed.
The numbers, however, stayed small. In November 2024 Ample still had tens of stations and a few hundred vehicles. In 2025 the cash ran out, the staff fell to two, and in December 2025 the company filed for Chapter 11 in Texas.
Ample raised USD 330 million in total. Its story suggests that good engineering is not enough, and that the real test in infrastructure is staying alive until you reach density.
Lessons for founders
- Infrastructure needs stations and vehicles at once. Spend your first money filling one small market with both, rather than spreading across new cities.
- Opening new markets looks like growth. If you are close to tens of stations and a few hundred vehicles after a decade, measure customer density before you extend the map.
- If you are closing a round in pieces, do not raise your costs on the assumption that the second close will arrive. When Madrid and Tokyo go live together, a missing tranche leaves you with weeks.
Sources
- US firm Ample enters Chapter 11 insolvency (electrive, 2025-12-22)
- Mitsubishi backs Ample's radical approach to charging EV batteries (TechCrunch, 2024-11-19)
- From the ashes of nearly a billion dollars, Ample resurrects Better Place's battery swapping business model (TechCrunch, 2021-03-03)
- Ample: $330M Battery Swapping Unicorn's Chapter 11 Collapse (Elevenflo, 2026-03-06)
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