Growth equity firm Mithril Capital Management invested $15m in Stem, a US-based energy storage technology provider backed by several conglomerates and energy companies, on Wednesday.
Stem provides businesses with on-site energy storage technology through an advanced battery system along with the software to manage energy use and cost. The company sources batteries from Samsung and Panasonic and battery systems from electric carmaker Tesla.
The funding was announced at the same time as news that Stem has more than 68MWh of energy storage systems operational. Its corporate customers include Wells Fargo, Safeway, Whole Foods and Reliance Steel.
The investment will be added on to Stem’s series C round, increasing its size to $68m and Stem’s overall funding to about $113m in debt and equity.
Diversified conglomerate Mitsui led a $12m first tranche in April 2015 before RWE Supply & Trading, a subsidiary of energy utility RWE, led the $33m second tranche in August. Stem has not revealed details of the additional $8m.
Stem had already raised $27m in a January 2015 series B round that included energy companies Exelon, which invested through its Constellation New Energy unit, and Iberdrola, as well as oil and gas company Total’s Total Energy Ventures vehicle, General Electric’s GE Ventures subsidiary and investment firm Angeleno Group.
John Carrington, Stem’s CEO, said: “Our unparalleled investors now include pioneers in the tech community, as well as some of the world’s largest energy companies.
“It is a winning combination that will accelerate our growth and make ‘storage as a service’ a critical component of global energy distribution and consumption.”
– Photo courtesy of Stem, Inc.