News

Primus Power Completes $11M Financing Round

May 31, 2011 by Jeff Shepard

Primus Power has received $11 million in its most recent round of financing. DBL Investors and I2BF Global Ventures joined existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The funds raised complement existing grants from the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), and the California Energy Commission (CEC), and will be used to support continued development and commercialization of Primus’ low cost, power-dense, distributed storage technology.

Energy storage is a key enabler of the emerging smart grid and reinforces the rapid expansion and integration of renewable energy. "As utilities increasingly grow the percentage of renewables in their generation mix, cost-effective storage becomes imperative," said Nancy Pfund, Managing Partner of DBL Investors. "Primus Power answers this need for storage on the power grid of the future, while simultaneously tackling today’s demands with flexible storage solutions offering outstanding power density at a low price point. With its advanced technology and seasoned management team, Primus delivers an important, environmentally beneficial component to the national, and eventually the global, energy market."

Primus Power’s flow battery technology is designed to meet the demands of the utility market, which requires a low cost, easily permitted and highly reliable solution. David Waserstein, Partner and Director of Investments at I2BF Global Ventures, believes that "Primus occupies the sweet spot between cost and power density. Today there are no comparable low cost, high power storage systems on the market, and we see huge potential for Primus’ technology."

This new round of financing comes as Primus is advancing to a full scale demonstration system. "Primus Power’s disruptive storage solution and strong technical performance has allowed us to attract a number of top-tier investors. Our initial investors – Chrysalix and Kleiner Perkins – are now joined by DBL and I2BF," said Tom Stepien, Primus Power’s CEO. "This new round of financing will allow us to develop our first full scale system and quickly move toward commercialization."

More news and information regarding the latest developments in Smart Grid electronics can be found at Darnell’s SmartGridElectronics.Net.