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US venture capitalists The Grantham Foundation and Lightbank are among a swath of major investors to participate in a $17.5 million Series A round that has just been closed by Newcastle-based sustainable power storage innovator Allegro Energy.
The US groups join Australian investors Origin Energy (ASX: ORG), Melt Ventures and Impact Ventures on the share register of Allegro, the developer of a water-based Redox Flow Battery (RFB) technology that is said to be safer and more environmentally friendly than other battery technologies.
The Boston-based Grantham Foundation, which was established in 1997 to “catalyse important opportunities in underappreciated climate themes”, led the Series A round.
It was joined in the round by Chicago-based Lightbank, which is known for its disruptive early-stage tech investments.
Allegro co-founder and CEO Dr Thomas Nann says the investor mix presents the company with strategic and growth capital that has been attracted by the global implications its technology presents in the long-duration energy storage space.
“These funds will help us rapidly accelerate our manufacturing capacity,” says Nann.
“We are thrilled to be among the companies to have been given global recognition by The Grantham Foundation while also successfully drawing critical local capital and strategic support from some of the leading names in the renewable energy space.”
Allegro Energy produces water-based RFB and supercapacitors that are “clean, non-flammable, fully recyclable and have no reliance on scarce materials or complex supply chains while also being at par or outperforming competing products in all key performance metrics”.
At the core of these products is Allegro’s unique microemulsion electrolyte, which enables energy storage that is said to be lower in cost and much safer than competing technology, opening up the company's ability to address needs at a global scale.
“We welcome the opportunity to support this revolutionary technology which we believe is poised to change the conversation around clean storage and lead to a rapid adoption of cheaper, cleaner and more abundant energy,” says The Grantham Foundation’s Sam Lefkofsky.
Allegro Energy, which was founded from research by Nann more than a decade ago that sought to find a new way for energy storage amid scalability challenges being faced by lithium and other technologies, received early backing from EnergyLab - Australia's largest climate tech startup accelerator.
"We are excited to be supporting the ongoing development of Allegro’s ground-breaking technology ever since their early days with EnergyLab,” says Impact Ventures’ general partner Piers Grove.
“Our commitment to supporting founders engaged in deploying critical environmental solutions at scale is captured in Allegro's vision and potential to transform long-duration energy storage at a global level.”
Melt Ventures managing partner Trent Bagnal adds that Allegro Energy's technology has “enormous potential to revolutionise the way we store energy”.
“The storage of renewable energy is undoubtedly a huge challenge in the energy transition,” says Bagnal. “The adoption of Allegro Energy technology will be critical to solving this challenge.”
Allegro Energy’s Series A follows a key investment last year by Origin Energy, which secured a 5 per cent stake in the company in tandem with an agreement to a pilot of the long-duration battery at Eraring Power Station. Allegro and Origin expect to complete the 800kWh pilot later this year.
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