UK home storage start-up Powervault raises GBP 700,000

British firm Powervault has raised GBP 700,000 (USD 1.1m/EUR 981,000) in a crowdfunding campaign to support its goal of becoming the leading supplier of home energy storage systems in the UK.

The start-up said on Tuesday it was taking on Tesla, which recently made headlines with its launch of batteries for homes and businesses. "Tesla is raising awareness of home energy storage, exciting potential customers and helping to create a market," said Powervault managing director Joe Warren.

Powervault aims to sell 10,000 home energy storage systems in three years and 50,000 in five years in a market to be driven by falling battery costs. It forecasts that up to two million UK homes will have solar panels by 2020.

The company says its patent pending product is a complete system in a box, including batteries, charger, inverter and control unit and has been specifically designed for UK homeowners. In partnership with photovoltaic (PV) companies, it is selling systems between 2 kWh and 4 kWh with an installed price of GBP 2,000 to GBP 2,800.

Powervault said it will use the funding raised on investment crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to implement a redesign that will reduce manufacturing costs by 20%, to develop a lithium-ion version of the product and to set up new sales channels.

The firm has also received GBP 285,000 in grant and prize funding and raised GBP 150,000 of seed funding in its first Crowdcube campaign in 2014.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.569/EUR 1.401)

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