Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund led a $110m series B round yesterday for Energy Vault, a Switzerland-based developer of grid-scale renewable energy storage systems.
Founded in 2017, Energy Vault has created a modular, gravity-based system designed to store large amounts of solar or wind energy, in theory allowing it to be used as a baseload power source 24 hours a day.
The system is powered by the company’s proprietary software and involves a renewable energy-powered crane which lifts 35-ton composite bricks into a tower structure. The kinetic energy generated when the bricks are returned to the ground is then released for use at the other end.
Energy Vault has agreements with customers on four continents and will invest the series B capital in accelerating the completion of its product.
Akshay Naheta, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, which oversees Vision Fund, said: “Energy Vault solves a long-standing and complex problem of how to store renewable energy at scale.
“The company’s integration of proven technologies with 21st century material science and machine vision software provides a solution that reshapes the unit economics of renewable energy while being restorative to the environment.
“Energy Vault is highly complementary to SoftBank’s existing energy portfolio and we are pleased to further the company’s global development.”
Andreas Hansson, a partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join the company’s board of directors in connection with the round. Building materials supplier Cemex had invested an undisclosed amount in Energy Vault in May 2019 through its Cemex Ventures unit.
Image courtesy of Energy Vault.
