Smart battery company Moixa has announced the completion of a multi-million pound funding round in which a collection of global investors led by Honda have backed its vision for the future of home energy storage systems.
The £8.6 million will be used to support the company’s plans for international growth and expansion of its current business; managing home batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) and smart charging, and aggregating battery capacity to provide grid services.
Other investors include Itochu corporation, a Japanese investment house and Fortune 500 company, and Contrarian Ventures and First Imagine! Ventures, both venture capital investors.
Moixa manages energy storage systems in 7,000 homes in the UK and Japan, aggregating a combined 70MWh which can be used to support the grid and provide a range of flexibility services.
The company will be working with Honda as part of the car maker’s aim to make 100 per cent of its European vehicles electrified by 2025. The two will work together on EV smart charging and further vehicle-to-grid trials in the UK.
Deloitte has estimated that by 2021, EVs will be as cheap as conventional cars in the UK.
Moixa will also build on its existing partnership with Itochu, having expanded rapidly into Japan last year as it integrated its gridshare technology into Itochu’s smart star batteries. Moixa will now be managing Itochu batteries in 6,000 Japanese homes, with a combined capacity of 60MWh. The companies are exploring the possibility of creating a virtual power plant form the fleet of batteries.
Last month, Moixa announced plans to create a virtual power plant in Sussex, as part of a £40 million smart local energy system.
Simon Daniel, chief executive of Moixa, said: “We are helping major brands make the transition to a low-carbon world of EVs, smart charging, and home energy generation and storage, by providing smart software which cuts costs for their customers and helps support the electricity network.
“Gridshare uses artificial intelligence to learn about each owner’s energy use and develop a unique charging plan to meet their needs and maximise savings. It knows when it’s most cost effective to buy energy from or sell energy to the grid. It will soon know whether it’s better to charge your car battery or use it to power your home. Our investors recognise that there will be global demand for this technology. Today we are managing thousands of batteries and our goal is to manage millions.”
Rokas Peciulaitis, managing partner at Contrarian Ventures added: “Energy storage is one of the most essential elements in the sustainable energy transition. By managing thousands of batteries as a ‘virtual power plant’, Moixa’s innovative gridshare software is tackling some of the biggest challenges caused by the rapid uptake of renewables. We’re thrilled to back Moixa’s vision to manage the world’s batteries and are excited to see the further expansion of gridshare globally.”