UK-headquartered developer-investor Zenobē Energy and US recycling specialist Redwood Materials made the biggest VC-funded deals for energy storage companies in the first nine months of 2023.

Form Energy has closed its Series D financing round, with investors including steel company ArcelorMittal putting US$240 million into the Boston-headquartered iron-air battery startup. 

Breakthrough Energy Ventures was among investors in a Series C funding round for Reactive Technologies, a company which has developed a means to measure “fundamental grid stability parameters in real-time,” offering visibility to renewable energy and energy storage asset developers and system planners. 

Multinational chemicals company BASF has furthered its interest in the energy storage industry, partnering on the development of ‘metal-free’ flow battery electrolytes with German startup JenaBatteries.

Along with TEPCO, Mercom named other major utilities and companies with a background in oil and gas as investors in the battery storage sector during the quarter.

Project funding for energy storage jumped to US$820 million in 2016 from just US$30 million in 2015, while Sonnen was revealed as the energy storage company to raise the most VC funding this year.