Inlyte Energy, a San Leandro, Calif.-based grid battery developer, raised $8m in seed funding.
The round was led by At One Ventures with participation from First Spark Ventures, Valo Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, Climate Capital, Anglo American, and others.
The company intends to use the funds to develop the first generation of its grid batteries made with iron and table salt.
Led by Founder & CEO Dr. Antonio Baclig, Inlyte provides a solution that leverages the proven design of the previously-commercialized sodium metal halide battery to create an energy storage system with high efficiency, long lifetime, competitive energy density, safety, and at an ultra-low cost.
Inlyte is targeting the diurnal energy storage market, with a storage duration of 4-10 hours, for which its batteries will provide round-trip efficiency appropriate for grid storage and other industrial applications.
In November of 2022, the company acquired Beta Research Ltd., composed of the core team of scientists in the UK who originally developed a sodium metal halide battery 40 years ago and brought the technology to commercial readiness and manufacturing capacity on multiple continents. Beta Research’s fully-functioning pilot production line, with 30,000 square feet of manufacturing and testing facilities, allows Inlyte to go-to-market with pilot projects once the optimized design is complete. Inlyte is finalizing its grid-optimized, next-generation sodium metal halide design and is planning to engage with pilot customers in the coming months, with the ultimate goal to launch a full factory in the United States in the coming years to leverage incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act.
The company was incubated at Activate in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and received an ARPA-E award in 2022 for its battery development.
FinSMEs
26/10/2023