Corporations are betting on a energy transition future full of battery storage, investing nearly $9 billion in that premise around the world in 2021, according to the new report from Mercom Capital Group.
Mercom Capital tracks funding, mergers and acquisitions in battery storage, smart grid and energy efficiency sectors. Overall, global investment in those sectors jumped nearly three-fold to $10.1 billion last year, including capital funding, public equity market and debt financing.
Venture capital is laying out big on battery storage companies, increasing investment there more than 500 percent from $1.6 billion in 2020 to $8.8 billion. The number of deals involving battery storage firms rose from 32 to 81.
“VC investments into battery storage companies exploded in 2021, and for the first time, funding activity reflected the significance of battery energy storage in the energy transition,” Mercom Capital Group CEO Raj Prabhu said. “We expect funding activity to remain robust as substantially more investments are needed to get battery technologies off the ground and into commercial stages at scale.”
A total of 260 VC investors participated in the battery storage deals in 2021. The top VC-funded companies were Northvolt with $2.8 billion, SVOLT with $2.6 billion in two deals, Sila Nanotechnologies with $590 million, ProLogium Technology with $326 million, Nexamp with and Form Energy with $240 million each, and Ambri with $144 million, according to the Mercom research.
A total of 24 M&A transactions happened in the battery storage sector, with four companies going public in 2021.
VC funding to smart grid companies increased to 35 deals for a total of $1.2 billion raised in 2021. Total corporate funding reached $2 billion in 38 deals. A total of 19 M&A transactions were recorded in the sector.
VC funding for energy efficiency companies was at $122 million in seven deals and total corporate funding reached $465 million in 2021. A total of 3 M&A transactions were completed for energy efficiency companies, down from 4 in the previous year.
