Burges Salmon has advised the Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF), managed by Amber Fund Management Limited (Amber), on providing a debt and equity funding solution to Vehicle-as-a-Service (VaaS) provider Breathe.
Breathe is a London-based Small Medium Enterprise (SME) established in 2021, with a mission to clean up London’s air quality by providing zero emissions vehicles to London’s private hire drivers. In 2020, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, decided to fund a four year continuation of the pilot phase of the Breathe London network.
Now, Breathe will provide more than 100 new Tesla vehicles to private hire drivers, including Uber, and replace existing petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles that significantly contribute to air pollution in London. MEEF will finance the zero emission capable vehicles, with finance payments made on a per mile basis to boost cash-flow to the fleet operators, enabled by Zeti’s fintech platform, ZERO.
This project is an important step in tackling London’s air pollution and supports Sadiq Khan’s commitment to zero emission transport in the capital. It is predicted that the Breathe fleet will save 338 tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere per year, contributing towards cleaner air for Londoners.
The Burges Salmon team advising on the deal was led by partner Graham Soar and director Alistair Rattray, both from the firm’s Banking and Finance team.
Alistair Rattray comments: “Advising impactful fund initiatives such as MEEF means we have played a part in providing a powerful model for the delivery of high quality investment initiatives which provide significant progress on meeting climate change commitments.”