THOR Industries, a manufacturer of recreational vehicles (RVs), has made a strategic investment of $15 million into Dragonfly Energy, a Lithium-ion battery manufacturer.
Dragonfly Energy produces batteries for the Recreational Vehicles (RV) industry, and the investment will allow Thor to use the company’s innovative storage technologies for its customers.
“Our investment in Dragonfly furthers THOR’s dedication to continuously improving the user experience of THOR RVers by providing them a best-in-class energy storage solution that enables RVers to boondock and camp off the grid. Dragonfly has been a valued partner to one of our largest and most successful North American RV companies, Keystone RV, a THOR operating company. The proven success of the products in the field and synergistic value-add relationship made this investment an important one to us. Our alignment with Dragonfly is a natural fit to the evolution of our product lines that empower the owners of our companies’ RVs to Go Everywhere and Stay Anywhere,” said Bob Martin, President, and CEO of THOR Industries.
The investment was made ahead of Dragonfly Energy’s proposed business combination with Chardan NexTech Acquisition 2, a special purpose acquisition company, resulting in Dragonfly becoming a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ. Which valued the company at $500 million pro forma enterprise value.
“Dragonfly is thrilled to take this next step with THOR to solidify our long-term collaboration. Our experience working with THOR brands, particularly Keystone, has convinced us that this is the best downstream strategic partner for us. Not only is THOR’s commitment to the end-user second to none, but this investment demonstrates THOR’s commitment to a much larger vision of energy sustainability. Together, we will continue to drive industry-best lithium-ion solutions, designed to improve the user experience of RVs. We look forward to being a key contributor to THOR’s future success,” said Dr. Denis Phares, Chief Executive Officer of Dragonfly.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2022 Funding and M&A Report for Storage, Grid, and Efficiency, total corporate funding (including VC, Debt, and Public Market Financing) in Battery Energy Storage came to $12.9 billion in 26 deals compared to $4 billion in 27 deals in Q4 2021. Funding was up significantly year-over-year (YoY) compared to $4.7 billion in 18 deals in Q1 2021.
