Led · Equity · Oct 2024

Spirit EV is a design, testing and production business launched by the team behind RBW to offer EV-as-a-service with an artisan approach for classic-style electric cars. The company provides component-level support or full vehicle design for sports and classic car builders seeking purpose-built EVs. Spirit applies RBW’s engineering and sourcing work, bringing systems developed over years and used to build RBW’s Roadster and GT models. The team includes veterans such as Neil Heslington, and Spirit’s vehicles will include modern safety and convenience features, including Apple CarPlay. Spirit is based in the U.K., is incorporating in the U.S., and plans to open a factory in Danville, Virginia by February 2025. The effort was funded with $6 million from Meson Capital Partners; RBW’s founders say they previously invested about $18 million developing their systems. Meson’s leadership estimates Spirit would need around $20 million to reach profitability and expects the business could be profitable in 2025.

Led · Equity · Jun 2024

RBW EV (RBW Sports & Classics Ltd.), founded in 2017 and based in London, manufactures new, hand-crafted classic British sports cars with a rear-mounted electrified powertrain. Its current lineup includes the Roadster, assembled at the company’s new factory in England’s Midlands Growth Corridor, and a GT model due to debut in late 2024. The Roadster has a starting price of $135K (USD); the upcoming GT’s starting price is $151K (USD). The company plans to use new funding to expand operations, manufacturing, sales and marketing on a global scale. CEO Peter Swain said the venture funding and continuing demand will allow RBW to expand its global footprint and ensure a steady supply of its hand-built EVs.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2022

Turntide Technologies develops axial flux electric motors, which differ from conventional radial flux designs in magnetic field arrangement and can offer lower weight, reduced packaging requirements and higher power density. The company faces manufacturing challenges for volume production due to production complexity and cost. To address this, Turntide launched Project SUPREME—an 18-month programme running to January 2028—aimed at automating winding, tooling and validation processes to enable higher production volumes. As part of the project it intends to develop and register intellectual property tied to the manufacturing processes. The work is being supported through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK's DRIVE35 Scale-up Fund, subject to government approval. The article does not provide financial metrics such as revenue or past funding details.

Participated · Series A · May 2018

Axiom Exergy develops Refrigeration Battery® technology that enables commercial and industrial refrigeration systems to operate intelligently via cloud-connected power management. The company offers Storage-as-a-Service to supermarkets and commercial buildings to access high refrigeration-based energy loads. Led by CEO and co-founder Amrit Robbins, Axiom targets grocery stores and cold storage facilities with its thermal energy storage solutions. The firm intends to scale these solutions in large, multi-site rollouts and begin rolling out additional Refrigeration Battery features such as grid services. Axiom recently raised $7.6M in a Series A, bringing total funding to date to $12.5M. Previous investors include Tesla CTO JB Straubel, Larry Mohr, Seabed VC and the Stanford-StartX Fund. Axiom Exergy develops the Refrigeration Battery, a modular, retrofit thermal energy storage system that freezes a tank of salt water at night to ‘store cooling’ and supply refrigeration services during peak hours. The system operates in parallel with existing refrigeration equipment, enabling more than six hours of load shifting without physical or programming changes to existing systems. Axiom says the Refrigeration Battery can reduce peak energy demand by up to 40 percent and provides backup cooling to protect perishable inventory during outages. The company targets supermarkets, food distribution centers, cold storage facilities and utilities seeking behind-the-meter, long-duration storage for congestion management. Axiom reports a growing pipeline with over $5 million in orders and offers no-money-down financing so hosts can save from day one. The company plans to use recent funding to scale deployments, expand the project development team, advance product development and testing, and run early pilots with major grocery chains in California.