Form Energy, Inc., an MIT-spinout energy storage company, has raised another $750 million in venture capital, bringing its total funding to date to more than $2 billion, the company announced last week. The new funding will be used to accelerate Form’s manufacturing scale-up in West Virginia and advance commercial deployments of its iron-air battery systems.
Form’s chief technology officer, William Woodford PhD ’13, was supported by MITEI as an Energy Scholar in 2008-2009. He founded Form in 2017 with MIT Professor Yet-Ming Chiang, the company’s chief science officer, and fellow MIT alumnus Marco Ferrara SM ’06, PhD ’08, now Form’s chief digital officer. Other co-founders were Harvard University alumni Mateo Jaramillo, CEO, and Ted Wiley, president. With this new funding, the company also expanded its management team, adding a CFO and a COO.
Form’s battery technology differs from the more commonly used lithium-ion batteries as it is made of an inexpensive material—iron—and can store energy for longer periods of time, lasting up to 100 hours. Longer duration storage and lower cost are considered essential factors for batteries to successfully enable broader use of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.
This is Form’s Series G round of fundraising. New investors this round include Sequoia Capital, Janus Henderson, Franklin Templeton, and PEAK6 Investments. Existing investors who also participated in this round include Prelude Ventures, Engine Ventures, TPG Rise Climate, Capricorn’s Technology Impact Funds, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, Gigascale Capital, Coatue, Energy Impact Partners, NGP, GE Vernova, Blindspot Ventures, and M&G Catalyst Fund.
Form also announced several new commercial agreements with Xcel Energy and Google, data center developer Crusoe, and FuturEnergy Ireland.
Form was also the recipient of a $5.7 million tax credit award from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) as part of the Clean Energy Center’s ClimateTech Tax Incentives Program, MassCEC announced this week. The tax credit awards are intended to make Massachusetts more competitive with other states for clean energy companies. While Form’s largest workforce site is currently its factory in Weirton, West Virginia, the company is headquartered in Somerville, MA, where it employs about 250 people and plans to grow more.
Woodford, Form’s CTO, will be a speaker at MITEI’s 20th anniversary symposium and celebration in November. He will participate in a panel of startup companies with ties to MITEI.