Energy Vault, an Idea lab company that has developed a transformative technology to store energy has raised $110 million in Series B funding.

The investment was made by SoftBank Vision Fund, which was its first investment in energy storage technology. Energy Vault will use the funds to accelerate the global deployment of its technology, which enables renewables to deliver baseload power for less than the cost of fossil fuels, 24 hours a day.

As part of the investment, Andreas Hansson, Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join the Energy Vault’s board of directors.

In November 2018, Tata Power announced that it would deploy a 35 MWh Energy Vault system by 2019.

Energy Vault’s technology was inspired by pumped hydro projects that rely on the power of gravity and the movement of water to store and discharge electricity. The company’s solution is based on the same fundamentals of physics and mechanical engineering used in those projects but replaces water with custom made composite bricks through innovative use of low-cost materials and material science.

“Energy Vault solves a long-standing and complex problem of how to store renewable energy at scale,” said Akshay Naheta, Managing Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers.

“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,” he added.

“As we pursue our mission to enable renewable energy to replace fossil fuels 24 hours a day, we’re thrilled to partner with SoftBank Vision Fund as we expand our global presence,” said Robert Piconi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Energy Vault.

“The Vision Fund shares our passion to combat climate change through innovation in energy storage technologies and, with its support as a strategic partner, Energy Vault is well-positioned to meet the large and currently unmet demand for sustainable and economical energy storage worldwide,” he added.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy last month issued invitations requesting proposals to develop gravity storage projects.

According to Mercom’s 1H and 2019 Funding and M&A report for Storage Grid and Efficiency, in May 2019, Energy Vault received an investment from CEMEX Ventures, an open innovation and Corporate Venture Capital unit of CEMEX.

Image Credit: Energy Vault