IMERGY Investment Thesis

Imergy is a unique battery-storage company HQ in Fremont, CA in the Bay Area. Imergy combines the power of proprietary chemistry and advanced technology to deliver groundbreaking sustainable solutions for storing and sharing energy. Its Energy Storage Platform (ESP) allows users to scale up power and storage capacity independently of one another, making it far more flexible and cost-effective than any other battery available. Flow batteries are used for 2-4 hours of high discharge whereas Lithium-ion batteries (the existing solution) are used for shorter bursts of 15-30 minutes

There were several themes that drove Elevate’s investment into Imergy, which was originally introduced to Elevate by our partners at Blue Run and NEA. It was an advanced stage company that had spent a number of years on R&D refining its core product. Many of our Partners at Elevate also have experience in the Renewable Energy sector and the company also fit into the sustainability theme. Battery storage is the most crucial element in the renewable energy business due to the intermittent nature of primary energy sources such as wind and solar. Bill Watkins, the former CEO of Seagate (and Forbes CEO of the year 2008) was brought on as the CEO of the company. Imergy also negotiated several promising global sales partnerships, particularly in Asia. However, the single largest client was Sun Edison, who had placed orders for several hundred units from Imergy. 

Post-Mortem: One of the challenges of many startups is the exposure to one or two key clients. This was the case with Imergy. The team had spent several years focused on product development and signed a landmark deal with Sun Edison. At that point in time, Sun Edison was the largest renewable energy company in the world. Unfortunately it was highly over-leveraged and was not able to meet its debt payments. This resulted in Sun Edison going from a $11bn market cap to bankrupt within a year. And Imergy lost its main client. Because of this, the company had to shut down.