In a recent LinkedIn post, Bettina Briz shares her excitement and rationale behind investing in WattsUp, a B2B SaaS startup focused on the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Briz, detailing her firm’s due diligence process, highlights the critical factors that led to backing the company and its founder, Hilary Taylor.
Briz frames the investment as a strategic move into a sector that, while perhaps not conventionally ‘sexy,’ addresses a significant and growing market need. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the market opportunity, the credibility of the founders, evidence of traction, the potential for financial returns, and the personal alignment with the team.
“This one solves a BORING NOT SEXY but BIG problem”
Briz elaborates on the pressing issues within the EV charging market. According to her post, a significant reliability crisis plagues the industry, with approximately 30% of chargers being non-functional at any given time. Furthermore, over half of these require human intervention for repairs, and a substantial portion of issues are hardware-related. This situation presents a large global opportunity, estimated at $8 billion.
Market Opportunity and WattsUp’s Solution
WattsUp’s core value proposition, as outlined by Briz, is to address this reliability crisis through predictive fault detection. Their platform monitors and anticipates failures for over 90 charger types. Briz notes the impressive results from a six-month pilot program, which demonstrated 97% uptime across 12 different charger brands. The key benefit for charge site operators, Briz explains, is improved profitability through increased uptime and revenue, coupled with lower operational costs, as the solution primarily relies on software and minimizes the need for manual repairs.
“Their value proposition is improved Profitability for the Charge Site operators. More uptime, More revenue, at Lower cost and only SW needed to scale”
Founder Credibility and Traction
A crucial element of Briz’s investment thesis revolves around the founders’ expertise and trustworthiness. She highlights Hilary Taylor and co-founder Sean Lamont, noting their combined 35 years of experience in the EV charging sector from previous roles at companies like WiTricity, SparkCharge, and Nxu. Briz stresses that their deep understanding of the problem stems from firsthand experience rather than theoretical knowledge.
Evidence of traction was another key win. Briz points to the successful pilot program involving 12 charger brands and existing revenue from 12 customers and partners. She also mentions a strong and growing customer pipeline, indicating solid market acceptance and a clear path for scaling the business, especially with the new funding.
“Is there proof, traction – YOU BETCHA, YES”
Financial Potential and Team Alignment
When discussing the potential for financial returns, Briz expresses strong confidence. She argues that WattsUp possesses an ‘unfair advantage’ with its predictive, proactive solution, differentiating it from competitors who merely monitor or fix existing issues. This unique approach, she suggests, is why charge site operators are rapidly adopting WattsUp’s technology.
Beyond the financial and market metrics, Briz emphasizes the importance of the team’s character. She states that her investment firm looks for founders who are not only ‘uber smart’ but also humble and kind. This emphasis on character and mutual respect is a significant factor in their decision-making process, reinforcing their commitment to supporting the WattsUp team.
Bettina Briz, along with Peter Himes, who will be joining WattsUp’s board as an advisor, are proud to back this team. Briz concludes her post by expressing her excitement for what’s to come and offering to share more information about WattsUp with interested parties.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Bettina Briz on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on July 13, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →