Dive Brief:
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The first half of 2017 saw a nearly 24% increase in funding activity for the battery storage, smart grid, and energy efficiency sectors compared to the year-ago period, a new report from Mercom Capital Group finds.
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Funding, for battery storage, smart grid, and energy efficiency hit $1.03 billion in the first half of the year, compared with $807 million in the first half of 2016, according to the report.
- Some of the strongest activity was in venture capital funding for battery storage, with 18 deals totaling $480 million in the first half of the year, compared with 20 deals that raised $179 million in funding in the first half of 2016.
Dive Insight:
The dominant deal in the first half of the year was the funding round in which Microvast Power System received $400 million from a group of investors led by CITIC Securities and including CDH Investment, National Venture Capital, and others.
That deal aside, VC funding for storage declined year-over-year as other funding deals in the sector paled in comparison. Vionx Energy received $12.75 million, and Moixa Technology raised $3.2 million.
In the smart grid sector, Mercom found a slight drop in funding deals with $304 million raised in 22 deals in the first half of the year, compared with $331 million in 29 deals in the first half of 2016.
The top funded smart grid companies included Actility, which secured $75 million, ChargePoint, which raised $43 million from Siemens, FreeWire Technologies, which received $7.6 million, and Enervalis, which secured $4.8 million.
Energy efficiency was the slowest segment of the sector. Energy efficiency companies raised a total of $242 million in 20 deals in the first half of 2017, compared with $297 million in 23 deals in the first half of 2016.