The electrical infrastructure startup Amperesand, situated in Singapore, has raised more than US $12.4 million in seed money. Venture capital firm Material Impact co-led the round alongside Temasek’s deeptech early-stage investment platform, Xora Innovation.
Along with Foothill Ventures, another participant was TDK Ventures, the venture arm of the Japanese electronics company TDK.
Amperesand is a grid infrastructure company based at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) that provides hardware for EV charging upgrades. Amperesand’s system uses high-frequency transformers, which are more efficient than conventional ones, and is based on solid-state transformer (SST) technology.
The company has been working to get its SST systems, which are useful for high-power applications, into the market. These include microgrids, data centers, and fast-charging options for electric cars.
With the seed money, Amperesand will be able to industrialize and produce large quantities of its technology.
“The time for commercialization of SSTs is now,” said Phil Inagaki, managing director at Xora Innovation.
Initially established as an SST research and development program at NTU, Amperesand was founded by veterans from ABB, General Electric, Siemens, and Vestas. Although the program began seven years ago, the company was founded in 2023.
