Companies in the battery storage industry raised US$9.6 billion in corporate funding during H1 2021, with European manufacturing startup Northvolt once again the biggest single recipient of venture capital (VC) investment.

The amount of corporate funding coming into the global battery storage industry in 2020 was more than double the amount the previous year, with over US$6.5 billion raised last year compared to around US$2.8 billion in 2019.

The lion’s share of new funding announced this week to help scale-up potentially disruptive technologies by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) of the US government Department of Energy (DOE) will go to battery and smart grid technologies.

Funding into battery storage companies fell dramatically in the first half of 2020 compared to last year’s equivalent period, according to the latest reporting from Mercom Capital.

The acquisition of a “next generation” battery start-up by Bosch could be a milestone for the e-mobility sector, but represents a risk for the German engineering giant, according to one analyst.