Polarium founder Stefan Jansson | Image credit: Polarium
Stockholm-based Polarium, a company dedicated to providing safe and sustainable energy storage solutions built on lithium-ion technology, announced on Tuesday that it has raised SEK 955M (approximately €91.84M) in a fresh round of funding.
With this funding, the company is now valued at $1B, making it the latest Swedish unicorn.
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The investor
The investment came from AMF, one of the top pension companies in Sweden that serve over 4 million customers.
With SEK 800B in assets under management, AMF claims to be one of Sweden’s leading occupational pension companies and one of the largest investors on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm. AMF is owned equally by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, and operated on mutual principles, entailing that all profits are returned to the customers.
Anders Oscarsson, Head of Equities at AMF, says, “Polarium is an exciting Swedish innovation company, with ambitious targets for both growth and expansion. With their smart solutions for energy storage and energy optimisation, they have vast potential to play an important part in the global energy transition, contributing to more sustainable development globally. We appreciate the opportunity to invest in Polarium in this exciting phase and look forward to being part of the company’s continued growth journey as a long-term and active owner.”
The investment from AMF adds them to the list of other renowned investors in Polarium, such as Vargas Holding, Roosgruppen and Beijer Ventures.
Energy storage solutions
Founded in 2015 by Stefan Jansson, Polarium is on a mission to create the ‘best’ energy storage solutions in the world. It looks to empower a sustainable world with smart modular energy storage solutions built on lithium-ion technology.
Polarium claims its energy storage solutions with added energy optimisation technology enable end-users to optimise their energy usage and costs by storing energy when prices are low and dispatching when prices are high, selling surplus energy back to the grid and maximising the use of renewables.
The company provides energy storage solutions to the telecom, commercial, and industrial segments. Its headquarters and R&D centre is situated in Sweden, with manufacturing in Mexico, Vietnam and South Africa.
The company serves customers worldwide through its global sales channels and presence in Indonesia, New Zealand, Sweden, South Africa, the UK, and the US.
“Today, our market-leading solutions are in use on all continents and all climate zones – from the Equator to the Arctic – ensuring that the flow of energy never stops, while enabling our customers to reduce energy costs and carbon footprint,” says the company.
On April 28, Polarium opened its new factory in Cape Town, South Africa. The new factory will, when fully operational, have the capacity to produce more than 300,000 batteries annually, equivalent to 4 Gigawatt hours.
Capital utilisation
The equity raised will enable Polarium to maintain its high growth pace, accelerate innovation, and invest across all functions, says the company.
Stefan Jansson says, “We have been on a rapid growth journey from day one. Helping the telecom sector to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their profitability by switching from diesel generators and lead acid batteries for reserve power to smart lithium-based solutions. With AMF as our partner, we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth within reserve power, and springboard that expertise to capture more of the ever-growing market for energy optimisation.”
The Swedish company had a CAGR of nearly 150 per cent between 2016 and 2021 and generated net sales of SEK 1.1B and an EBITDA of SEK 83M in 2021.
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