Germany-based energy storage system developer Sonnen completed a €60m ($70m) financing round on Wednesday led by Shell Ventures, oil and gas supplier Shell’s corporate venture capital arm.
The identities of the other participants in the round were not confirmed, but Sonnen CEO Christoph Ostermann said in a statement that it received backing from all its investors.
Formerly known as Sonnenbatterie, Sonnen has created a home energy storage and management system designed to work in tandem with solar panels. It also runs a community scheme where owners of its systems can share their surplus solar energy to save money.
The funding will fund growth in the US and Australia, and Sonnen is pursuing a cooperation agreement with Shell’s New Energies unit that will cover integrated energy, electric vehicle charging and grid services based on Sonnen’s virtual battery technology.
Brian Davis, Shell’s vice-president of energy solutions, said: “This investment enables us to combine Shell’s power business activities with Sonnen’s high quality, innovative products and business model to enhance our consumer energy offerings.
“This is in line with our strategy to partner with leading companies to deliver more and cleaner energy solutions to our customers.”
Sonnen has now raised approximately $168m in total, having received $85m in a late 2016 round that included smart energy technology producer Envision Energy, energy utility Čez and power and industrial equipment manufacturer General Electric.
MVP, Set Ventures, eCapital and private investor Thomas Putter also backed the 2016 round, which followed approximately $13m from eCapital, Munich Venture Partners and Chrysalix Set, across rounds in 2013 and 2014.