News & Events

Phoenix, AZ, October 12, 2021 – Pangaea Ventures Ltd. (Pangaea) announced today that its portfolio company, ESS, Inc. (“ESS Inc.”, “ESS” or the “Company”), has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol GWH. ESS designs, builds and deploys clean, low-cost long-duration energy storage systems with a mission to catalyze a sustainable energy future.

Based in Portland, Oregon, ESS has commercialized its unique iron-based flow battery which is an environmentally benign, long-life energy storage solution for the world’s rapidly growing renewable energy infrastructure.

The need to increase the power grid’s resiliency is a top priority as renewable energy deployment ramps up, increasing the demand for long-duration storage systems. ESS’ innovative iron flow battery technology is solving a key global issue in renewable energy storage, offering long-duration storage that’s safe, sustainable, flexible and low cost. The transition to a strongly capitalized public company will enable ESS to rapidly scale its manufacturing capacity, grow its sales footprint and better serve its customers such as Enel Green Power and SB Energy. ESS recently announced an agreement with SB Energy to install 2 GWH of energy storage capacity over the coming years.

“ESS is an excellent example of our strategy of investing in mission driven entrepreneurs using hard tech to solve the world’s greatest challenges,” said Andrew Haughian, General Partner of Pangaea Ventures. “Right from the beginning, we believed that long duration energy storage would be required for deep renewable penetration and that ESS had the best solution. With the market expanding faster than expected, we believe this is an excellent time to be introduced to a broader investor base.”

“Pangaea Ventures was the first investor in our company to see the massive need for long duration storage while also sharing our belief in the iron flow platform’s potential to address that need,” said Craig Evans, Co-Founder and President of ESS. “Even before they wrote their first check, they have been invaluable partners in our success with their support on fundraising, hiring and other company building activities that have been necessary to get us to the point where we are at today.”

Pangaea Ventures led ESS’s Series A round in 2015 with a valuation of less than $10M. Since then, Pangaea Ventures has supported several subsequent rounds of financing along with investors such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Softbank Energy, as well as with Pangaea limited partners BASF Venture Capital and GC Ventures. 

About Pangaea Ventures

Pangaea Ventures, is the world leader in hard tech and impact investing, with offices in Vancouver, B.C., Canada and Phoenix, AZ, USA. With over two decades of hard tech impact investing experience, Pangaea’s impressive portfolio includes companies that are solving fundamental challenges that impact the world including climate change, global food security, access to clean water and poor health outcomes. From due diligence to investment selection and portfolio management, impact is embedded in all aspects of Pangaea Ventures’ activities. For more information, visit www.pangaeaventures.com. 

About ESS Inc.

ESS Inc. designs, builds and deploys environmentally sustainable, low-cost, iron flow batteries for long-duration commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications requiring from 4 to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity. The Energy Warehouse™ and Energy Center™ use earth-abundant iron, salt, and water for the electrolyte, resulting in an environmentally benign, long-life energy storage solution for the world’s renewable energy infrastructure. Established in 2011, ESS Inc. enables project developers, utilities, and commercial and industrial facility owners to make the transition to more flexible non-lithium-ion storage that is better suited for the grid and the environment. For more information, visit www.essinc.com. 

Press Contact

Andrew Haughian

General Partner

Pangaea Ventures

(604)787-3478

andrew@pangaeaventures.com