by Tim Chapman
According to Dow Jones Venture Source, venture funding for energy storage technology more than doubled year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009 to $114 million. There were also a few sizeable deals in the second quarter, including $69 million for A123, so the trend appears to have continued throughout the first half of the year.
Much of the recent investment has focused on automotive battery manufacturers. Some of the funds have come from industry investors: Fisker Automotive led a $4 million round of investment in Advanced lithium Power. Meanwhile, GE put up $15 million of the $69 million investment in A123 this year and now holds a stake of more than 10%. The investment forms part of GE’s smart grid and ecomagination initiatives.
Boston Power Inc, which is backed by Foundation Asset Management, Oak Investment Partners, Venrock and others, raised $55 million in a series D round in January 2009. Boston Power is reportedly diversifying beyond its traditional expertise in smaller batteries for notebooks and consumer products to address the automotive battery space.
Last year saw Californian lithion-ion battery manufacturer Imara Corporation raising funding in January, taking its total funds raised to over $19 million, from investors including Battery Ventures and Nth Power. Also in California, Envia Systems raised $3.2 million in first round funding in 2008 from investors including Bay Partners and Redpoint Ventures
A couple of major deals were secured towards the end of 2008, including $30 million for San Diego based nickel-zinc automotive battery manufacturer PowerGenix from investors including Advent International, Angeleno Group, Braemar Energy Ventures and Technology Partners.
ReVolt Technology in Switzerland, which has developed a zinc air battery, raised EUR10 million in December 2008 from investors including Northzone Ventures, RWE Innogy, Soffinova Partners and SINTEF.
Notable venture deals this year so far in the energy storage space have included Deeya Energy, which attracted series C funding of $30 million in a round led by Technology Partners in May.
Also in energy storage, EnStorage of Israel, which is developing a flow battery, raised $2 million in January 2008 from investors including Greylock Partners, Canaan Partners and Siemens Venture Capital.
In the thin film battery space, there have been relatively few recent fundings. Large investments in this space over recent years have included Solicore, which raised $15m in 2005. Planar Energy Device raised $4 million in 2007 from Battelle Ventures and Innovation Valley Partners for development of its thin film battery. While Infinite Power Solutions most recently raised $13m in series B funding from investors including Applied Ventures, Core Capital and Polaris Ventures.
Despite the fundraisings by companies such as Infinite Power and Solicore, NanoMarkets argue that the thin film battery industry is underfunded.
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