IONATE announce oversubscribed $17M Series A led by AlbionVC.

The IONATE team today

We're thrilled to announce the completion of an oversubscribed $17M Series A round in ZCC portfolio company IONATE, led by UK deeptech investor Albion VC and joined by new investors In-Q-Tel, JGC, Santander InnoEnergy Climate Fund and Antares Ventures. Existing investors also participated in the round, including us here at Zero Carbon, IQ Capital and Cycle Group.

Matthew Williams IONATE’s Founder & CEO said: “The IONATE team builds extraordinary tech with extraordinary timing. Just as national networks, industrial players and data centers realised how much of their progress depended on modernising their electrical infrastructure, we are ready to help them do exactly that. Resiliency, flexibility, and efficiency are key for our energy systems, and IONATE is uniquely positioned to strengthen all three. We are so excited to have some of the strongest VCs and strategic partners in our corner to realise this impact and begin transforming power globally.”

IONATE founders Matthew, Luca and Rob

We first invested in IONATE just over four years ago from the first Zero Carbon Fund. Back then, it was just founders Matthew, Rob and Luca with an idea to revolutionise grid hardware in a way that could open up wasted capacity in the grid, enable greater penetration of renewable energy generation, and provide the data and controls needed for the self-balancing grid of tomorrow. ZCC's Pippa has served as an Investor Director in the company since the initial investment, and has loved seeing the development of the Hybrid Intelligent Transformer (HIT) idea from a computer model to a benchtop prototype to the huge utility-scale demo units going into the field today.

One of IONATE's grid-scale Hybrid Intelligent Transformers at an independent testing facility, prior to installation at a pilot site.

Why we invested

In short, in every country, the way we use electricity has changed completely since the grid was installed - from a handful of generating sites sending electricity outward to users, to a complex web with millions of points of generation, storage and use; and increased domestic loads with heat pumps and electrical cars. The grid of today has to manage intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind, while maintaining a narrow tolerance of frequency and voltage, all with limited data and control ability. IONATE's HIT gives transformers with a smart upgrade, integrating high-fidelity data and precise control of voltages, harmonics and reactive power all-in-one. It can stabilise power flows across grids, power generation, industrial assets and data centres. Coordinated by Aurora, IONATE's AI-enabled software, it turns the passive grid into the internet-like self-balancing decentralised energy platform we need for the increased demands of decarbonisation. Modelling shows that a grid with IONATE's transformer-replacements can handle 33% more distributed energy resources, carry 25% more power without upgrading the poles and wires, and reduce wasted power by 6%. Globally, by 2050 this could mean saving 95 MT CO₂e/year from the reduction in losses, 136 MT from avoiding more carbon-intensive balancing services, and nearly 2GT CO₂e/year from enabling greater use of intermittent renewable energy. For more detail about the challenges the grid faces, see Chloe's post last year about the critical role that modernising the electrical grid will play in decarbonisation.

2025 will see IONATE putting multiple utility-scale pilots into the field, starting with energy giant EDP. They will also be demonstrating applications for private customers from data centres to energy storage assets. We're so proud to have been a part of IONATE's journey so far, and can't wait to see what they achieve next.

Read more:

• Press release on IONATE's website

• Article in Sifted