Rondo Energy Closes $22M in Series A Funding

Rondo Energy, announced that it has closed a $22 million Series A funding round led by two of the world’s leading investment firms in deep decarbonization and electrification: Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.

This funding enables Rondo Energy to build projects that deliver low-cost, high-temperature and zero-carbon heat across a variety of industries. Rondo plans to begin manufacturing and deliver customer systems later this year.

Heavy industry accounts for about one third of global greenhouse emissions — most of which is associated with the generation of high-temperature heat.

The Rondo Heat Battery offers a simple, low-cost, zero emissions source of this heat by taking wind and solar electricity and converting it to thermal energy that is stored at temperatures over 1200°C.

“We believe the Rondo Heat Battery will prove critical to closing stubborn emissions gaps,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “The cost of renewable energy has been steadily falling, but it hasn’t been an option for industries that require high temperature process heat since there was no way to efficiently convert renewable electricity to high temperature thermal energy. Rondo enables companies in industries such as cement, fuels, food and water desalination to reduce their emissions while also leveraging the falling costs of renewables.”

“Decarbonizing industry is the next frontier and is a huge challenge,” said Shayle Kann, partner at Energy Impact Partners. “Rondo’s breakthrough innovation opens a surprisingly simple path: converting electricity directly to heat and storing it. This technology, coupled with the plunging price of wind and solar, means the industrial sector can profitably decarbonize many processes, at large scale, now. This is great news, because the world can’t wait.”

“Industrial heat produces our commodities and powers our economies. But today’s industrial heat sources generate massive emissions around the world,” said John O’Donnell, CEO of Rondo Energy. 

“The industrial sector feels the same pressure to switch to clean energy as other sectors, but the barriers to decarbonization have historically been steeper,” said Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst at Raymond James. “Rondo’s technology is differentiated because it addresses the underserved industrial heat market and can be implemented everywhere there is renewable power available.”