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ENERGY STORAGE
Soaring High: State of investments in the energy storage market As energy storage gains prominence in the clean energy sector globally for its ability to help mitigate climate change, investments in this sector are expected to soar in the next few years. Global investment outlook
A few of the noteworthy investments in these sectors include: • Primus Power — Chrysalix Venture Capital, Anglo American Platinum, Matador Capital Partners ($106 million raised) • Vionx Energy — VantagePoint Capital Partners and Starwood Energy Group ($193 million raised) • Malta Inc.— Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Alfa Lava, Concord New Energy Group ($26 million raised to date) • Form Energy — Breakthrough Energy Ventures, The Engine,
Source: CES
The global energy storage sector is at an atypical stage of growth. With higher adoption of energy storage in e-mobility and renewable integration (rooftop solar+storage, solar+wind - storage hybrid), grid stability, commercial and industrial applications like telecom, data centers, microgrids and residential sector – Evs and residential energy storage is expected to account for most of the growth. The industry has witnessed fourfold increase in venture capital (VC) investment in energy storage space from 2015- 2016 to 2019. With the emergence of innovative companies in energy storage space, VCs have started to look at this space as having a promising future as compared to the conventional internet-based companies. Given COVID-19 pandemic this year, we anticipate the total VC investments in 2020 to be similar to that as of 2019, unless it records a significant increase. In 2018, lithium-ion based battery technology companies received the most funding ($236 million), followed by energy storage systems companies ($193 million). Li-ion based battery technology companies received the most
funding in 2019 with $1.4 billion. Other categories that received funding included gravity storage, flow batteries, compressed-air energy storage, energy storage downstream, fuel cells, liquid metal batteries, thermal energy storage, solid-state batteries, sodium-based batteries, and zinc-air batteries. There were 10 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the battery storage category in 2019, of which only two disclosed transaction amounts. In 2018, there were 16 M&As, three of which disclosed transaction amounts. In 2020, increase in funding was largely on account of Northvolt's $600 million equity raise.
| November-December 2020
and Prelude Ventures ($9 million raised to date) • Q u i d n e t E n e r g y — N X T Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Evok Innovations ($8 million raised to date) Solid-state battery tech • QuantumScape — Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Volkswagen, Kleiner Perkins, and Khosla Ventures ($297 million raised to date) • Farasis Energy — Industrial Bank Company, Dongxing Securities, China V Fund, Soochow Asset Management ($815 million raised to date) • SKIO Matrix — IDG Capital, Hua Ying Capital, Meridian Capital China, and Dingcang Capital ($307 million raised to date) • Bill Gates leads $10 million investment in Quidnet Energy's long-duration geo-mechanical pumped storage • Canada announces CAD590 million investment in Ford electric car plant: The Canadian government and the province of Ontario announced investments of CAD295 million ($223 million) in a Ford factory said to be the largest EV plant in North America. • BlackRock invests $118 million in UK e-vehicle startup Arrival:
