Fastned raises another 27 million euros from private investors
The Dutch fast charging provider Fastned raised 27 million euros from private investors in Belgium and the Netherlands through another bond issuance. The company aims to use this funding to cover the costly expansion of its charging network, as each new charging site requires an initial investment of nearly one million euros.
Image: Fastned
The latest bond issuance is already the third of its kind in 2026. In total, 92 million euros were raised this way — the highest annual amount to date, up from 79 million euros in 2025. Fastned needs the funds from private investors primarily to further expand its charging network. Although its operations are becoming increasingly profitable, expansion still requires substantial amounts of money. More on that shortly.
The outstanding volume of retail bonds has now risen to 364 million euros. In other words, Fastned must repay this amount to private investors. The current maturity period of these bonds is five years, with an interest rate of 6% per year. To date, more than 13,000 private investors have invested in Fastned through this bond program, resulting in a cumulative investment volume of over 400 million euros.
Fastned currently operates 452 charging parks in nine European countries. Another 70 charging parks are under construction. Alone in 2026, the company has opened 46 new locations. In the long term, Fastned aims to operate a total of 1,000 charging parks by 2030.
991,000 euros for a new charging park
Looking at Fastned’s financial reports reveals why the company regularly needs fresh capital despite rising revenues. Building a nationwide fast-charging network is an extremely capital-intensive endeavor. First, suitable plots of land must be found and long-term usage rights secured. This is followed by planning, approval processes, and site development. Next, medium-voltage connections must be installed, and the charging parks need to be equipped with powerful transformers and fast-charging stations. Most recently, Fastned estimated the initial investment for each new charging park at 991,000 euros—compared to 892,000 euros just a year earlier.
Fastned must not only invest in equipping the charging stations themselves. The entire site development and management of growth also require funding: in 2025, the so-called “Network Expansion Costs” amounted to 34.3 million euros—48 percent higher than the previous year. Additionally, the company invested around 100 million euros in expanding its network.
On the right track operationally
The latest financial figures show that the investments are increasingly paying off. In the third quarter of 2026, sales from its physical stores rose by 63 percent to 51.3 million euros. While the company already enjoys a high operating EBITDA margin of around 45 percent, this primarily means that Fastned can sell the electricity it purchases at a profit. However, this figure does not account for the substantial investments in equipping charging stations and expansion costs. As a result, the company incurred a loss of 13 million euros in the first half of 2026. For the third quarter, Fastned has not disclosed either a loss or a profit, stating it will provide such information only after the end of the second half of 2026.
To fund its operations, the company relies not only on bonds for private investors but also on equity and bank loans. For example, in January 2026, Fastned secured a green credit line worth up to 200 million euros. Among its lenders are ABN Amro, ING, and Rabobank.
A business model with long-term vision
The high capital requirement is not unique to Fastned but is typical of the fast charging industry. Operators must make significant upfront investments long before a location reaches its full profitability. At the same time, efficiency increases with utilization: the more electric vehicles on the road and the more frequently they charge publicly, the better the existing stations can be utilized.
The 92 million euros in new investments are less a sign that the existing business is not working. Rather, they show how much capital is required to establish a pan-European presence in a still young and increasingly competitive market. For Fastned, it will be crucial to see if demand for public fast charging grows fast enough so that the high upfront investments pay off in the long term. The management hopes to increase the utilization rate of the charging stations from the current 13.5 percent to 30 percent over time — at that point, the calculations would likely work out.