Global Funding For Battery Storage, Smart Grid, & Energy Efficiency Tops $1 Billion In H1 2017

The total global funding raised during the first half of the year for the battery storage, smart grid, and energy efficiency sectors topped $1 billion, a 25% increase over the same time a year ago, according to new figures published by Mercom Capital.

Mercom Capital Group, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm, published its latest report detailing the combined funding and mergers & acquisitions across three separate sectors — Battery Storage, Smart Grid, and Energy Efficiency. The combined total reached $1.03 billion across the first half of 2017, up 25% from $807 million in the first half of 2016.

The top venture capital (VC) deal across all 3 sectors was the $400 million investment raised by Microvast Power from CITIC Securities, CDH Investment, National Venture Capital, and others. The top 5 across the board were:

Battery Storage

VC funding for the battery storage sector — which includes private equity and corporate venture capital financing — reached $480 million across 18 deals, compared to $179 raised over 20 deals a year ago. The top VC funded Battery Storage company in the second quarter was Microvast Power with its $400 million. The next closest was Vionx Energy with $12.75 million, and Moixa Technology with its $3.2 million.

Over the first half of the year $129 million were raised in 9 debt and public market financing deals for the battery storage industry compared to three deals raising $69 million a year ago. Only one battery storage project was funded in the first half of the year, at $152 million, compared to three raising $195 million a year ago. Battery storage project funding reached $5 million in the first half of the year over two deals, while there were four merger & acquisition (M&A) transactions.

Smart Grid

VC funding for smart grid companies reached $304 million over 22 deals in the first half of the year, compared to $331 million over 29 deals in the first half of 2016. The top VC-funded smart grid company was Actility, securing $75 million from Creadev, Bosch, Inmarsat, Idinvest, Bpifrance, Ginko Ventures, KPN, Orange Digital Ventures, Swisscom, and Foxconn. This was followed by $43 million raised by ChargePoint from Siemens.

A total of 17 investors participated in smart grid VC funding rounds in the second quarter of the year, while over the first half of the year a total of $9 million was raised in debt and public market financing in one single deal, compared to three deals raising $217 million a year ago. In total, 13 smart grid M&A transactions were tracked during the first half of the year, compared to only 5 a year ago.

Energy Efficiency

Finally, VC funding for the energy efficiency sector over the first half of the year reached $242 million over 20 deals, compared to $297 million over 23 deals a year ago. The top VC deal included $15 million raised by CIMCON Lighting from Energy Impact Partners, while a total of 6 investors participated in VC funding in the second quarter.

Debt and public market financing for energy efficiency companies bounced back in the second quarter and helped the first half of the year reach $1.7 billion over 9 deals, compared to $2 billion a year ago. There were 5 M&A transactions compared to 10 a year ago.