New money is flowing to small thermal storage startup Axiom Exergy.
The company closed a $7.6 million Series A to scale its cold-storage device for grocery stores, bringing its total funds raised to $12.5 million. Shell Ventures and GXP Investments led the round, which also included WorldQuant Ventures, SV Tech Ventures and Meson Capital.
The 15-person startup will use the funds to grow its grocery partnerships from initial installations with Whole Foods and Walmart. The company also plans to expand its cloud-based data analytics to optimize how its product shifts stores’ electricity consumption.
“Where we really deliver a lot of value is when we take that flexibility and operate it in a really intelligent way,” said Axiom Exergy CEO and co-founder Amrit Robbins. “We have a deep understanding of the refrigeration assets and the thermal systems in these cold-chain facilities like grocery stores.”
The investment places a bet on the small and often overlooked thermal storage industry.
Most energy storage startups these days use batteries to store electricity electrochemically, but a handful of entrepreneurs sell devices to store energy in hot or cold insulated vessels. These can save money for customers by delivering that stored heating or cooling when electricity prices peak; they typically employ off-the-shelf components that entail minimal technology risk.
Now that an oil and gas supermajor and a handful of venture capital firms have put some money in the ring, others may follow. Shell this week also announced an investment in GI Energy, a distributed energy specialist based in Chicago.
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