Zero Industrial, a thermal energy storage solution provider, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Evok Innovations with participation from Rusheen Capital Management. The funding is expected to help the company accelerate the development of its thermal energy storage solutions in North America.
Founded last year, Zero Industrial develops industrial decarbonization projects that utilize thermal energy storage solutions. The company offers its customers project development services that include technology selection, project design, and engineering solutions for the thermal energy storage system.
“We are rapidly originating project opportunities with industrial customers who want to reduce their energy costs and lower their carbon footprint by using stored electricity as thermal energy instead of burning gas, fuel oil, or coal,” said Ted Kniesche, founder and CEO.
Zero Industrial says it finances each project and offers clean heat or steam to its customers through long-term Heat-as-a-Service agreements, eliminating the need for any upfront capital investment by the industrial facility. The company is currently originating and developing projects across the U.S. and Canada.
“We continue to see massive growth from cheap, intermittent renewable generation, coupled with increasingly impacted electrical grids. Zero Industrial capitalizes on these market challenges by deploying thermal storage projects that will shift curtailed or off-peak clean electricity to baseload heat and steam used by industries globally,” said Naynika Chaubey, Partner at Evok Innovations.
According to Mercom’s Annual and Q4 2024 Funding and M&A Report for Energy Storage and Smart Grid, Venture Capital funding in the Energy Storage sector in 2024 decreased 60% year-over-year, with $3.7 billion in 84 deals compared to $9.2 billion in 86 deals in 2023.
In February, Epyr, a thermal energy storage company, raised €3 million (~$3.1 million) in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round. The funding round was co-led by AENU and Daphni, which also included OVNI Capital, WEPA Ventures, and several other European angel investors.
