e-Zinc, a company enabling sustainable, long-duration energy storage with its zinc-air battery, announced it has raised an additional $31 million in follow-on funding to its $25 million Series A round. This oversubscribed Series A2 funding round was led by Evok Innovations, with additional investments from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Export Development Canada (EDC), and Ultratech Capital Partners. Plus, e-Zinc’s existing shareholders also participated, including Toyota Ventures, Eni Next, Anzu Partners, BDC, and Graphite Ventures. e-Zinc plans to use this funding to accelerate product development and complete the construction of its 42,000 sq. ft pilot manufacturing facility in Mississauga, Ontario.
A lot of renewable energy is required to enable a zero-carbon future. But for renewable energy to become a baseload source of clean electricity, further investment in flexible and inexpensive long-duration energy storage solutions is critical. This funding will accelerate e-Zinc’s establishment of a manufacturing base that will enable commercialization of its long-duration energy storage solution, which promises lower cost and increased safety compared to conventional batteries.
e-Zinc is collaborating with Toyota Tsusho Canada Inc. and the California Energy Commission to demonstrate how e-Zinc’s energy storage systems can reliably provide long-duration energy storage at a commercial scale. And by using this new investment to carry out these field demonstration projects, e-Zinc will validate that its zinc-air batteries have the capability to store 24 hours of energy, which is approximately 10 times that of traditional batteries.
e-Zinc also recently expanded its executive leadership team with the addition of Rhonda Landers, Chief Financial Officer; Zakiul (Zaki) Kabir, Chief Technology Officer; Rob Howard, Chief Operating Officer; and Balakrishnan (Balki) Iyer, Chief Commercial Officer. And each brings a deep understanding of the energy technology industry and experience developing and scaling operations for innovation-led organizations along with sharing e-Zinc’s commitment to leading the energy transition toward a zero-carbon future. Their combined leadership, along with this new financing, will allow e-Zinc to grow and advance from its product development phase to commercialization.
KEY QUOTES:
“With this new investment, we are well positioned to transition to a production-oriented stage and focus on our operational excellence. Following the upcoming pilot demonstrations and the validation of our manufacturing processes, we will have proven the advantages of our innovative energy storage solution and the infrastructure needed to bring our proprietary technology to market at commercial scale.”
- James Larsen, CEO of e-Zinc
“e-Zinc has the potential to revolutionize the long duration energy storage market. The company’s ability to scale durations at very low cost sets it apart from competitors and makes it an extremely attractive solution for both off- and on-grid applications. Evok is excited about the company’s mission to accelerate the clean energy transition and enable a net zero future, and the Evok team looks forward to supporting the company as it works to achieve this mission.”
- Jane Kearns, Partner at Evok Innovations
