Gravity based Energy Storage Startup Energy Vault Announces $100 Million Funding

Energy Vault, the firm behind gravity-based, grid-scale energy storage solutions with its proprietary technology, today announced $100 million in Series C funding.  We had covered the firm’s series B funding back in 2019. The newest investment round is being led by existing investor Prime Movers Lab, with additional participation from other existing investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Helena, and Idealab X. In addition, the Series C funding is supported by new investors, including Pickering Energy Partners through its Energy Equity Opportunity Fund, SailingStone Global Energy Transition, A.T. Gekko, Crexa Capital Advisors LLC, Green Storage Solutions Venture I LLC, and Gordon Crawford

Goldman Sachs and Stifel served as financial advisers on the transaction.

The capital raised will be used to support execution of the Company’s growth plans as it ramps up multi-continent deployments of its innovative EVx™ platform, including fulfilling a strong pipeline of customer agreements across markets in the U.S., Middle East, Europe, and Australia. Deployments will begin in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2021, with a broader global ramp up expected throughout 2022.

Energy Vault’s system is designed to be cost-efficient, reliable, fully safe to operate, and environmentally sustainable, and is deployed through a highly localized supply chain that maximizes local job creation and economic impact, all underpinned by cutting edge material science and proprietary software technologies. The integration of these advanced technologies with conventional physics of gravity enables the Company to address a large, unmet need for energy storage solutions that manage the intermittent supply of renewable energy at utility scale to deliver dispatchable energy on demand, accelerating broader market adoption of renewable energy sources.

Following the successful commercial scale deployment of its energy storage system in 2020, Energy Vault launched its new EVx platform in April 2021, concurrent with the announcement that Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures has invested in Energy Vault. EVx introduces performance enhancements designed to have 80-85% round-trip efficiency, a more than 35-year technical life, and a flexible, modular design that is 45% lower in height and that can economically serve both higher power/shorter duration applications with ancillary services from 2 to 4 hours, while seamlessly scaling to serve longer duration requirements from 5 to 24 hours or more. With zero degradation of the storage capacity over time, the potential energy of the system can be stored with the composite blocks in the raised position for unlimited periods of time.

To maximize the sustainability elements of the storage system, Energy Vault implemented a circular economic approach to the supply chain that also maximizes on site material production, thus reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the transport sector. Further material science innovation was developed in the manufacturing of the composite blocks that enables the beneficial re-use of waste materials otherwise destined for landfills, such as coal ash, waste tailings from mining operations and de-commissioned wind turbine blades that would otherwise be burned or buried underground, integrating these waste materials into the composite blocks to power its gravity-based storage system.

“We are happy to welcome Prime Movers Lab and other new and existing strategic partners that collectively bring an extraordinary track record of investing in breakthrough technologies that are accelerating the clean energy transition on a global basis,” said Robert Piconi, CEO and co-founder, Energy Vault. “The world is at a critical inflection point in the shift towards broader adoption of renewable energy sources. Energy Vault is accelerating this transformation as we now move to global deployments and market adoption of the technology to help energy providers and industrial customers more cost-effectively meet their sustainability and decarbonization goals.”

“To truly harness the power of renewable energy, the world needs to develop reliable, flexible storage solutions for when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow,” said Zia Huque, general partner at Prime Movers Lab. “Energy Vault has cracked the code with a transformative solution that is designed to fulfill clean energy demand 24/7 with a more efficient, durable and environmentally sustainable approach than other options. Energy Vault is a gamechanger in our green energy transition and Prime Movers Lab is delighted to support the company in scaling the deployment of its technology.”