VFlowTech, a Singapore-based developer of energy storage solutions, said today that it has raised US $3 million in a pre-Series A investment round headed by Wavemaker Partners.
SEEDS Capital, Sing Fuels, and other angel investors were also present.
The funds will be used by VFlowTech to expand its operations and increase production of its “redox flow battery energy storage solutions.”
Dr. Avishek Kumar (CEO) and Dr. Arjun Bhattarai (CTO) founded the company in 2018 in partnership with Entrepreneur First. SG Innovate and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University also contributed generously.
The vanadium redox flow (VRF) battery, created by VFlowTech, is a low-cost, dependable, and long-duration energy storage option. This battery operates through a constant reduction and oxidation process between the vanadium redox couples with no negative consequences, as well as redox couple cross-mixing. Because of this one-of-a-kind configuration, the battery has a 20-year life expectancy.
The company’s goal is to eliminate the use of diesel in distant and rural regions by delivering low-cost, dependable cleantech solutions.
VFlowTech has built and deployed energy storage systems to support various applications in Singapore, Australia, and Japan so far, and has a pipeline of large-scale infrastructure projects in key markets like Australia and Africa in the works.
VFlowTech also intends to work with key partners in other countries to design and deploy self-contained green charging stations for the EV sector. Its most recent initiative is to create a smart electric car fast-charging station idea for South Korean gas stations.
“The energy storage market is growing exponentially and plays an important role in the cleantech transition across the globe,” said CEO Kumar. “We are on a mission to reinvent the energy storage solution with our modular vanadium redox flow batteries to enable a 24/7 shift to renewables.”
The company has three main modular products: 5 kW/30 kWh, 10 kW/100 kWh, and 100 kW/500 kWh.
According to a press release, the company’s 10kW-100kWH system can provide most small households and remote communities in the region with up to two days of energy autonomy on average. It also addresses current battery system concerns about performance degradation, thermal runaway, and product safety.
Flow battery systems, unlike lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, can scale their storage power (kW) and energy (kWh) independently, with power and energy deployments varying depending on the size of the battery stack and the volume of electrolyte contained in the tanks.
According to the latest market update from the International Energy Agency, global renewable energy capacity will expand by 45 percent in 2020, the highest year-on-year growth rate in the past two decades. According to the research “Battery Energy Storage Market, 2021-2028,” the industry will be valued US $26.81 billion in 2028, up from US $7.81 billion in 2020.
Worldwide investors, including computer superstars Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, are interested in the creation of cheaper long-duration storage than lithium-ion batteries.
