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V O L . X X X I N O. I V F E B R UA R Y 2 4 , 2 0 2 5 18 E N E R G Y / E N V I RO N M E N T F O C U S e platform includes an "AI agent" overlay for fleet drivers and managers with a "fleet assistant" that can help them find and reserve high-speed chargers, and turn on their chargers during non-peak hours, said Cooper, all with a single app. e platform also facilitates access to AI assistance with account management and reporting. SBD co-founders are Cooper; Kamal Ayad, the president; and Carolyn Fitzpatrick, chief operating officer. Ayad and Fitzpatrick worked at IDEXX, WEX and National Grid. eir experience at WEX was launch- ing the international fleet card program in over 33 countries, Cooper said. Cooper was with WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX), a financial technol- ogy services provider headquartered in Portland, for 22 years and then at a few Series A and Series B startups in the software and AI spaces. "I was focused on North America in the fleet card sales, marketing and relationship management efforts, sign- ing multi-year contracts with Sunoco, Sinclair, etc. and launching a pair of fleet card programs focused on light duty and 'over the road' heavy truck programs," he said. He also ran the integration of WEX's 2016 acquisition of Ogden, Utah- based fleet card provider Electronic Funds Source LLC. SBD kicked off operations in July 2024, and the bootstrapped company is currently speaking with venture capitalists and existing companies to explore potential investments and joint ventures. "We're in the process of rais- ing our seed round," Cooper said. SBD's app is on the market now as a "minimum viable product," which provides enough features to be usable by early customers. It's expected the app will have a full "minimum viable product" launch by the end of March 2025. Cooper said fleet electrification is a growing trend. "We expect fleet EVs to represent one-quarter of the fleet vehicles in the U.S. and Canada by 2032. e payments associated with charging these vehicles will be over $25 billion annually." He added, "We are seeing EVs being adopted in a number of munici- palities across Maine. In fact, the city of Portland has an electric garbage truck in their fleet today." Over the past month, SBD announced two developments designed to advance the platform's adoption. It added Greg Strzegowski to its board of advisors. Strzegowski has 25 years in the fintech sector, including tenures at WEX as well as Georgia and California financial services firms CorPay and Marqeta. He brings experi- ence in corporate development, particu- larly in acquisitions, sales and fundrais- ing, according to a news release. SBD has also formed a partnership with Emobi, a charging infrastructure firm headquartered in San Francisco, that's expected to accelerate EV fleet adoption. e partnership will integrate Emobi's network of over 120,000 public EV charging locations across 26-plus networks into SBD Technologies' plat- form, called FleetCharge. Emobi's technology provides accurate and user-friendly EV charger data, according to SBD president Ayad. SBD's FleetCharge consoli- dates all charging data and payments into a single, user-friendly platform, providing reporting on energy usage and costs across home, depot and public charging locations. Cooper added, "We are using their acceptance network at over 120,000 public chargers to open up a universal charging network for fleet drivers." SBD is headquartered at 701 U.S. Route 1 in Yarmouth, Suite 4 (in the Patriot Insurance building), and has three full-time employees and a hand- ful of part-timers. Tina Fischer, Mainebiz Staff Writer , can be reached at tfischer @ mainebiz.biz R e n e e C o r d e s a n d L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h i s s t o r y . LEVERAGING PARTNERSHIPS FOR GROWTH: Harnessing the Power of Networks, Collaboration, and Mentorship SP ONSORED BY The Mainebiz Women's Leadership Forum brings together a panel of women executives to share their unique experiences and perspectives on leadership through personal stories and key learnings. 7:30–10:30AM / GOOD THEATER AT STEVENS SQUARE, PORTLAND LEARN MORE AND REGISTER AT MAINEBIZ.BIZ/WLF25 THURSDAY, MAY 8 Panelists to be announced in March 2025! FOLLOW U S @M AI NEBI Z #MBWLF25 » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E Bill Cooper Carolyn Fitzpatrick Kamal Ayad P H O T O S / C O U R T E S Y O F S B D T E C H N O L O G I E S

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