Terra One raises $7.5M for decentralised battery storage

Berlin-based battery storage startup Terra One has raised $7.5M in seed funding in a round led by PT1, an early-stage VC for real asset technology.

Co-founded by serial entrepreneur Tony Schumacher and Thomas Antonioli, the former CFO of sharing economy startup Grover, Terra One is aiming to help Europe achieve its climate goals and wean the continent off politically sensitive and non-renewable energy sources.

While solar capacity is expanding and more wind turbines are being installed, the current electricity grid and storage capacities are inadequate, which prevents a full transition to renewable energy. In 2023, for example, Germany lost 19 terawatt hours of energy (enough to power six million households) because of inefficient grid management and congestion. Without action, the numbers will increase in the medium term as more renewables come online.

Terra One aims to solve the challenge through its network of decentralised battery storage projects, which charge when the proportion of renewable energy sitting in the grid is typically at its highest (during the day or at night when people are not making their breakfast or dinner) and the prices for electricity are at their lowest. The units discharge at peak times when the grid would otherwise have to switch to conventional power generation to meet demand and prices are significantly higher.

Its current largest approved battery projects can power a city of 100,000 people for up to six hours and it has built up a pipeline of 300 projects with more than 20 Gigawatt hours (GWh). For context, it takes 67,200 gallons of oil to produce just one Gwh of electricity. One Gigawatt of energy can power 100 million LED light bulbs and is equivalent to almost 2.5 million solar panels.

Previous investors neosfer and 468 Capital also participated in the round.

Co-founder Thomas Antonioli, commented on the raise: "We are very excited about this financing round, which will allow us to drive forward our vision of building Europe's leading battery optimiser and thus make an essential contribution to achieving climate targets. Specifically, we will use the financing to further build our team and develop our revolutionary battery optimisation software and our project pipeline."