Gravity-based grid-scale energy storage solutions provider, Energy Vault, has announced that it raised $100 million in Series C funding.

Existing investors including Prime Movers Lab, SoftBank Vision Fund, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Helena, and Idealab X led the funding round. New investors – Pickering Energy Partners, SailingStone Global Energy Transition, A.T. Gekko, Crexa Capital Advisor, Green Storage Solution Venture, and Gordon Crawford also participated in the funding round.

The Switzerland-based company will use funds to support its growth plans and accelerate the deployment of its EVx platform across various continents while meeting customer agreements across markets in Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

Energy Vault will start deploying its platform in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2021 and is expected to cover other continents through 2022.

The EVx platform combines an innovative six-arm crane design that lifts specially designed, massive composite blocks with a proprietary, cloud-based software platform that orchestrates the storage and discharge of electricity.

According to the company, its EVx platform enhances performance with 80-85% round-trip efficiency coupled with a technical lifespan of over 35 years. In addition, the platform provides a flexible and modular design that is 45% lower in height and can economically serve both higher power and shorter duration applications with ancillary services from 2-4 hours.

The platform also serves longer duration requirements from 5-24 hours or more with zero storage capacity degradation over time.

Robert Piconi, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Energy Vault, said, “We are happy to welcome Prime Movers Lab and existing strategic partners that are accelerating the clean energy transition on a global basis.”

“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 consumers more cost-effectively meet their sustainability and decarbonization goals,” Piconi said.

According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2021 Funding and M&A Report for Storage, Grid & Efficiency, battery storage companies raised $9.6 billion in corporate funding in the first half of 2021. The report stated that funding levels had improved every quarter since Q1 2020.

Energy Vault raised an undisclosed amount from Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, the strategic technology venturing program of integrated energy and chemicals company Aramco.

Image credit: Energy Vault