TWAICE, a German battery analytics software company founded in 2018 which already counts Audi and Daimler as well as European energy utility companies amongst its customers, has raised US$26 million in a Series B funding round.
The investment was led by Chicago-headquartered alternative investment firm Energize Ventures, a group focused on accelerating digital innovations in the energy and sustainability industries. Also joining the round were a group of venture capital (VC) firms which have already made investments into TWAICE, including Creandum, a VC advisory firm which has backed the likes of Bolt and Spotify, Cherry Ventures, Speedinvest and UVC Partners.
“After years of closely monitoring the energy storage ecosystem, we recognise that software will be crucial to helping the battery industry achieve scalability – whether that is batteries powering electric vehicles or the grid,” Energize Ventures principal Tyler Lancaster said.
“Our investment in TWAICE is the culmination of the ideal market conditions, technology, and team, and we expect to see escalating demand for the company’s proprietary battery analytics platform.”
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Energy-Storage.news reported on the company’s launch in March of the Operation Strategy Planner, software that enables energy storage system operators to manage the profitability of their assets against the impact participation in revenue-generating opportunities has on the wear and tear of the systems’ batteries. The company’s assessment tools include creating digital twins of physical assets for simulation and modelling.
Sebastian Becker, an in-house energy expert at the company, told Energy-Storage.news at the time that the platform “enables increased profit from battery storages in multi-use operation, while maintaining battery health and performance,” which he described as “a must for the sustainability and security of any project”. The company said that the platform was already in use by major European utilities at three large-scale battery storage sites.
Other milestones TWAICE has already achieved include its software being used by specialist insurance group Munich Re to provide an industry-first performance warranty assurance for lithium-ion batteries.
‘North America is the next logical step’
The latest funding takes the amount raised so far by the company to US$45 million and TWAICE said the fresh investment will help it expand its core capabilities including its analytics platform and fuel the company’s international expansion to target electric vehicle and energy companies.
“With the rapid acceleration toward electrification globally, we are now keen to grow in key markets. North America is the logical next step to become a true global player. Energize is the ideal partner with its impressive portfolio of energy and mobility companies and strong footprint in the United States,” Stephan Rohr, one of two “co-CEOs” at the company, said.
The importance of software in a rapidly digitising energy industry has come to be recognised broadly across the battery storage value chain, from TWAICE and its German compatriot ACCURE and the likes of India-headquartered ION Energy that do battery analytics for determining the lifecycle and health of operational assets, to software solutions for operating and optimising the performance of battery storage across various market opportunities from the likes of Tesla, Wartsila and Fluence.
Three energy storage software providers were interviewed for a feature article in the Q1 2021 edition of our quarterly journal, PV Tech Power, which discusses the role of software as a driving force in the energy transition, while this week, Energy-Storage.news ran an interview about Fluence’s optimised bidding platform solution, which the company acquired last year from Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS).
