Battery, storage cos raise USD 96m of VC funding in Q3 2015

Battery and storage companies raised USD 96 million (EUR 84.5m) of venture capital (VC) funding during the third quarter of 2015, compared to USD 126 million in the second quarter, Mercom Capital Group LLC said on Monday.

Since the start of the year, VC funding deals in the sector totalled USD 290 million, a decline from USD 383 million in the first nine months of 2014.

In the largest of a total of nine deals in the quarter, US behind-the-meter energy storage systems provider Stem raised USD 33 million from the energy trading arm of Germany's RWE Group. The top three deals also include US zinc flow battery technology firm Primus Power securing USD 25 million from I2BF Global Ventures, the I2BF-managed Russia-Kazakhstan Nanotechnology Fund and existing investors; and Greensmith Energy Management Systems, also of the US, completing a USD-12.3-million Series C financing round, led with a USD-5-million investment from utility American Electric Power.

The sector saw USD 48 million of debt and public market financing deals in the quarter, compared to USD 69 million in the preceding quarter.

There was only one disclosed deal of a total of three M&A transactions during the period. It was the USD-2.2-million acquisition by large-format lithium-ion cells and energy storage company Leclanche of the design and IP rights for modules and battery management system software, as well as the production know-how of the battery system technology developed by ADS-TEC.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.880)

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