A report has highlighted a global upswing in interest toward flow batteries after the technology secured the majority of the $397million invested in the battery/storage sector in 2015.
Flow battery companies received $120 million of funding, followed by energy storage system companies with $96 million, according to Mercom Capital Group’s annual 2015 Funding and M&A Report.
The top VC-funded companies include vanadium redox flow battery firm VionX Energy ($58.1 million); energy storage company Younicos ($50 million); power storage start-up Stem ($33 million); flow battery start-up Primus Power and turn-key ESS firm UniEnergy Technologies, each raising $25 million.
However, venture capital funding for the battery/storage sector was down $34million to $397 in 2015 compared with the previous year, according to the report.
It is worth noting that although funding was down, the number of deals was up by three, with 37 deals completed last year compared to 2014.
Of the 57 VC investors who participated in battery/storage deals in 2015, three were involved in multiple deals including AltEnergy, DBL Partners and Pangaea Ventures, with two deals each.
There were 11 merger and acquisition transactions in battery/storage, of which four transactions were disclosed, totaling $2.4 billion compared to 18 M&A transactions (six disclosed) in 2014 for $232 million, the report said.
A breakdown of 2015 spending as follows: Q1, $69 million; Q2, $126 million; Q3, $96 million; Q4, $108 million.
