World leading thermal energy technology company Sunamp has raised £4.5m in a Series A financing round. The company’s range of heat batteries use advanced thermal energy storage materials that can be charged with large amounts of energy from renewable and other sources, and released to deliver hot water, cooling and space heating on demand.
The investment round was led with £3.2m ($4m) investment by Chilean venture capital firm Aurus Capital, one of the largest in Latin America with a specialisation in Industrial-Tech & Impact investments. Scottish Investment Bank and existing private investors were key participants. The fundraising will support commercial scaling in the UK and international expansion in Central Europe, Asia and North America. The company was advised by Ben Lynch of Cleantech Capital Advisers (London and Paris). MBM Commercial LLP acted on behalf of Aurus Capital and Addleshaw Goddard acted on behalf of the Company.
Sunamp heat batteries are used for heating and cooling across a wide range of temperatures, and for a wide range of residential and industrial applications. The company’s range of products for the residential market replaces bulky hot water cylinders with compact heat batteries. They store energy from renewable and non-renewable sources, releasing it on demand to provide hot water and ultra-responsive central heating, cutting energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Compact, A+ rated and scalable, Sunamp’s heat batteries allow more renewable energy to be used both behind the meter and in the electricity grid by helping to absorb peaks of renewable energy generation, deal with intermittency and reduce curtailment.
Sunamp has global growth potential, not only in the residential built environment but also many other industry sectors including commercial, industrial and automotive markets, and has begun to produce batteries for large scale industry cooling. It is the only heat battery manufacturer in the world to be awarded A Grade RAL Certification, the independent quality mark and the only global standard for Phase Change Material (PCM) and PCM products.
The company has spent much of the early stages of development refining its product and establishing manufacturing facilities in the Edinburgh City Region. In gearing up for full commercialisation it has achieved six-fold sales growth and anticipates a significant further increase in sales in the next year.
Sunamp CEO Andrew Bissell said: “We are delighted to have the support of Aurus as we move forward at pace with our growth plans and capitalise on the interest in our products from around the world. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been receiving new orders and forging new relationships with national and international partners. We also welcome the continued support of our existing investors as we move forward into our next exciting phase of growth and development.
“We are driving down energy consumption associated with heating and cooling of homes, businesses and industrial environments which means we have a very significant role to play in tackling today’s climate emergency.”
Aurus Capital Managing Partner, Victor Aguilera said: “We are excited to be part of Sunamp and being able to contribute to its global scaling. We have been impressed by what the team has accomplished so far and look forward to supporting their vision for a better planet. We believe that Sunamp has the opportunity to become a game-changer in the energy sector and contribute significantly to protect our environment by enabling more renewable energy to go into heating and cooling, and at the same time saving money in millions of homes and industries across the world. This is another example of our focus on investing in leading companies with advanced materials technologies generating positive impacts.”
“This highlights Scotland’s global reputation and talent for renewables that will shape our future low carbon economy and drive towards meeting net zero targets.”
