Battery storage startup charges up on $17.5 million Series A

A Newcastle-based battery storage startup backed by energy giant Origin has raised $17.5 million in a Series A.

Allegro Energy has developed water-based Redox Flow Batteries (RFB) to store renewable energy and plans to build an 800 kWh pilot storage plant at Origin’s Eraring site later this year.

The round was led by US climate change philanthropic fund The Grantham Foundation, with support from fellow US fund Lightbank, as well as Origin Energy and local funds Melt Ventures and Impact Ventures.

In June last year, Origin announced it had taken a 5% equity stake in the startup to support the staged development of a 60MWh pilot RFB at Origin’s facilities, with the option to support Allegro all the way through to funding its first gigafactory. It was the beginning of the year

Allegro’s RFBs and supercapacitors are clean, non-flammable, non-corrosive and recyclable, and are less expensive and safer than competing technologies

Allegro co-founder and CEO Dr Thomas Nann said the Series A was a mix of strategic and growth capital.

“These funds will help us rapidly accelerate our manufacturing capacity,” he said.

“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.”

The Grantham Foundation’s Sam Lefkofsky said: “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.”

Impact Ventures general partner Piers Grove said they had supported Allegro ground-breaking technology ever since their early days with EnergyLab, two years ago, when it was one of 10 startups in the accelerator program.

“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,” he said.

Melt Ventures was also an early backer in 202o, through the Melt Accelerator.