ABB, a Switzerland-based power and automation technology group, has used its corporate venturing group to strike its second deal in a month by investing £8m ($12.6m) in Aquamarine Power, a UK-based renewable energy developer.
SSE Venture Capital, the corporate venturing unit of local utility Scottish and Southern Energy, reinvested a further £3m in Aquamarine alongside other existing shareholders.
In June, Aquamarine raised £6m from SSE, development agency Scottish Enterprise, undisclosed Norwegian investors and Sigma Capital Group, a UK-listed asset manager, following the first close of its series A round at £10m in September last year.
In March, a joint venture partnership between Aquamarine Power and Scottish and Southern’s renewables division was granted exclusive development rights to an area of the seabed off the coast of Orkney as part of the world’s first commercial leasing programme for wave and tidal energy generation projects.
Martin McAdam, chief executive of Aquamarine Power, said ABB Technology Ventures’ investment would boost the commercialization of its Oyster wave energy technology (pictured).
He said: "Through working together, ABB will gain an early-mover advantage in our wave energy technology, while we will be able to access ABB’s technical, research and engineering expertise and utilise their global supply chain network."
Brice Koch, head of marketing and customer solutions at ABB, which also invested in Pentalum Technologies earlier in the month, said: "Wave energy is primed to become an important part of the world’s renewable energy portfolio."