Aspen Aerogels has raised US$150 million in financing from a Koch family investment firm to help grow its aerogel thermal barrier technology division, including new products which prevent thermal runaway in batteries.
Thermal storage startup Antora Energy has raised US$50m from a group of investment firms including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures to accelerate the development of its heat-based carbon block energy storage system for heavy industry.
Battery storage companies raised 159% more corporate funding in 2021 than in 2020, with funding activity reflecting the “significance of battery energy storage in the energy transition,” analysis group Mercom Capital has said.
Companies in the battery storage sector attracted US$11.4 billion in corporate funding in the first nine months of 2021, a 363% rise on the same period of last year.
AutoGrid has raised US$83.5 million in funding to scale up its virtual power plant (VPP) platform for distributed energy resources (DER) and Leap has raised US$33.5 million to scale and develop its DER software solution.
Tesla’s ability to offer rooftop solar, electric vehicles and home battery storage in one package could place the company in a strong position as an electricity retailer in Texas.
Energy Vault has become the latest startup with a novel, non-lithium battery energy storage technology to attract significant investment, raising US$100 million through a Series C funding round.
