- Invinity says latest fundraise will be last before profitability
- Institutional backing no guarantee of success
After throwing away hundreds of millions of pounds in shareholder cash, energy storage companies could finally be on the cusp of financial sustainability. An equity raise at one former straggler last week showed serious investment interest, with a UK government-backed bank providing £25mn to Invinity (IES) for local growth and institutions providing another £25mn. Local investment should also pick up as National Grid (NG.) puts £60bn into the energy system this decade and a potential Labour government prioritises renewables that need back-up.
This has been some time coming. While selling different technologies, Invinity, Ceres Power (CWR) and ITM Power (ITM) have all promised over the years to be on the verge of breaking through to profitability off the back of the energy transition. Recent investors have largely been burned: only by going back five years do ITM and Ceres hit positive total return territory, while Invinity’s share price peak was over 200p in 2016 when it was called RedT Energy. A company reorganisation and merger in 2020 followed a cash crisis in 2019.