What are the latest funding trends in energy storage?

All funding deals in the energy storage market over the last years

Below is the table listing all the deals. You can find our methodology at the end of this page.

If you want a deeper understanding of the market and its current dynamics, get our report covering the energy storage market.

Is energy storage funding actually growing in 2026?

Energy storage funding is up 44.1% this year, but the number of startups getting funded has fallen sharply.

We recorded $4.03 billion across 62 deals from January 1 to September 15, 2026, compared with $2.80 billion across 75 deals during the same period in 2025. That's 13 fewer financings despite an additional $1.23 billion flowing into the market.

The number of funded companies also dropped from 74 to 60. Compared with 2024, the contrast is even more striking: the market recorded exactly 62 transactions in both periods, but disclosed funding has almost doubled from $2.13 billion.

Round sizes help explain what's happening. The median disclosed financing increased from $10.9 million in 2025 to $13.6 million, while the average jumped from $53.8 million to $82.3 million. Some companies are raising much larger amounts, especially those building manufacturing capacity or deploying commercial systems.

There's an important disclosure caveat: only 49 of the 62 financings in 2026 have exact dollar amounts, compared with 52 of 75 in 2025. The deal-count decline is clear, but the exact size of the capital increase is less certain.

Funding metric	2026 YTD	2025 YTD	2024 YTD
Number of deals	62	75	62
Funded companies	60	74	62
Disclosed capital	$4.03B	$2.80B	$2.13B
Median known round	$13.6M	$10.9M	$11.5M
Average known round	$82.3M	$53.8M	$34.4M
Largest round	$1.00B	$675M	$375M
Rounds above $100M	9	5	4
First-financing share	22.6%	36.0%	29.0%

Would energy storage funding still be growing without the biggest deals?

Energy storage funding would barely be growing without the megarounds. Removing deals above $50 million cuts this year's growth from 44.1% to just 8.7%.

Of the $4.03 billion raised, only $542.9 million came from rounds of $50 million or less. That compares with $499.5 million in 2025.

Looking back to 2024 makes the picture even less convincing. Once we remove rounds above $100 million, disclosed funding is actually 29.4% lower than two years ago, despite the headline total being 89.1% higher.

Nine transactions above $100 million generated 81.2% of all disclosed capital this year. The three largest rounds alone contributed $2.30 billion, or 57.1% of the market.

There is a nuance worth keeping. The three biggest financings represented an even larger share of funding in 2025, at 62.2%. So concentration hasn't increased on every measure. What has clearly changed is the number of very large rounds, which rose from four in 2024 to five in 2025 and nine in 2026.

The market is producing more massive financings, while funding below $100 million remains considerably weaker than it was two years ago.

Which energy storage startups are getting the biggest investments?

Base Power, Form Energy and Antora Energy have attracted extraordinary amounts of funding, with $2.30 billion raised between them in 2026.

Base Power secured $1 billion in Series C funding in August to expand its residential battery business. The company installs batteries in homes and uses the combined network to provide backup electricity and help manage demand on the grid. Its strategy depends on building a distributed power network rather than simply selling batteries individually.

Form Energy announced a $750 million Series G on August 12. The company makes iron-air batteries capable of storing electricity for around 100 hours, targeting utilities and large energy users that need power over several days. The funding supports manufacturing expansion at its West Virginia factory and commercial deployments.

Antora Energy raised $550 million in Series C funding on July 30. Instead of storing electricity through conventional battery chemistry, Antora uses insulated blocks of carbon heated to very high temperatures. The stored energy can then supply industrial heat or be converted back into electricity.

These three companies serve different customers, yet all face the same expensive challenge: producing physical energy infrastructure at scale. Form is expanding battery manufacturing, Antora is building and deploying industrial systems, and Base Power is rolling out hardware across residential properties.

Their rounds explain much of this year's funding increase. Manufacturing batteries and deploying infrastructure across thousands of customer sites requires serious capital, even when commercial demand is already established.

Are fewer energy storage startups actually getting funded?

Yes, the number of energy storage companies raising money has fallen almost 19% compared with last year.

Our research identified 60 funded businesses in 2026, down from 74 in the equivalent period in 2025. That's also slightly below the 62 companies financed in 2024.

Only two businesses completed multiple recorded rounds during the current comparison period. The smaller company count isn't being distorted by a handful of startups repeatedly announcing new financings.

The decline also extends across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. We aren't seeing one region dragging down an otherwise expanding global market.

And while the largest financings attract attention, many smaller companies continue to raise relatively modest amounts. The gap between the median round of $13.6 million and the average of $82.3 million shows just how far the biggest deals sit above the normal financing.

For founders, this is an increasingly uneven market. A company demonstrating demand and preparing to manufacture thousands of systems can access very large amounts of capital, while the overall number of businesses securing investment is shrinking.

Are investors abandoning new energy storage startups?

New energy storage startups are having a much harder time getting their first recorded financing, while companies that previously raised money continue to attract investors.

First financings fell from 27 in 2025 to 14 in 2026, a decline of 48.1%. Follow-on deals, meanwhile, stayed at exactly 48.

That means the entire 13-deal decline in total funding activity corresponds to the drop in first financings. The share of deals going to companies without a previously identified funding round has fallen from 36% to 22.6% in one year.

The typical initial cheque hasn't changed nearly as much. The median known first financing remained close to $3 million across all three comparison periods.

Previously financed businesses are operating in a different environment. Their median disclosed follow-on round reached $28.55 million this year, showing how much larger the financing requirements can become once a storage company advances beyond its earliest development stages.

First-financing classifications depend on available public funding histories, which aren't always complete. But a fall from 27 to 14 is substantial, especially when follow-on activity hasn't declined at all.

Are early-stage energy storage startups getting squeezed out?

Early-stage energy storage startups are still raising money, but there are fewer Seed and Series A financings than last year.

Seed remained the busiest funding stage in 2026, with 24 deals compared with 25 in 2025. Series A activity declined from 17 to 14 transactions.

Together, these stages accounted for 61.3% of all deals, up from 56% the previous year. That might initially suggest stronger early-stage investment, but the share increased partly because fewer transactions had unknown funding stages.

The dollar distribution tells a more revealing story. Seed financings generated $99.7 million in disclosed capital, compared with $1.85 billion from just three Series D+ rounds.

Series C funding also increased sharply, reaching $798.5 million across four transactions, compared with only one Series C deal the previous year.

Seed activity has barely moved, Series A volume is weaker, and late-stage cheques are much larger. There isn't evidence of a wholesale abandonment of early-stage storage companies, although new entrants are clearly having a more difficult year.

Funding stage	2026 deals	2025 deals	2024 deals	2026 capital
Seed	24	25	22	$99.7M
Series A	14	17	18	$324.2M
Series B	7	9	4	$514.2M
Series C	4	1	3	$798.5M
Series D+	3	2	2	$1,852.0M
Growth Equity	2	5	3	$51.8M
Unknown	8	16	10	$390.4M

Is lithium-ion still dominating energy storage funding?

Lithium-ion is still the biggest energy storage category, but its grip on investment dollars has weakened considerably.

Lithium-ion businesses received 36 financings in 2026, representing 58.1% of all deals. That's down from 47 transactions in 2025, although the category still attracts far more financings than any alternative technology.

Its disclosed capital share fell even more dramatically, from approximately 86.7% in 2025 to 52.7% this year.

That doesn't mean investors have suddenly lost interest in lithium-ion batteries. Base Power alone raised $1 billion, demonstrating that businesses using established battery technology can still attract extraordinary funding when their commercial model is compelling.

What's changing is the competition for large investments. Form Energy's iron-air batteries and Antora's thermal storage systems attracted major financings that would previously have been less common outside conventional battery technologies.

The International Energy Agency's work on battery supply also helps explain lithium-ion's continuing advantage: decades of manufacturing growth and falling costs have made it the dominant chemistry for today's battery storage installations.

Lithium-ion remains the leader by transaction count. But alternative technologies are now claiming a much bigger share of the industry's largest funding rounds.

Is long-duration energy storage becoming the hottest investment category?

Long-duration energy storage is attracting some of the largest investments in the market, although the excitement is concentrated around a few companies.

Metal-air and long-duration battery businesses raised approximately $1.09 billion in 2026, representing 27.1% of total disclosed energy storage funding. Yet the category completed only four deals, the same number as in 2025.

Form Energy accounts for much of this jump. Its $750 million financing followed a series of commercial announcements, including an agreement with Crusoe in March 2026 reserving 12 GWh of iron-air battery systems for AI data center infrastructure, with deliveries expected to begin in 2027.

The company also announced a planned 300 MW / 30 GWh installation associated with Google's new Minnesota data center and Xcel Energy. That project would provide around 100 hours of storage capacity, a fundamentally different operating profile from conventional four-hour battery systems.

Form reported approximately 80 GWh of projects under agreement around the time of its latest financing. Those agreements are commercially significant, although they shouldn't be treated as delivered installations or recognized revenue.

Long-duration storage already attracted unusually large investments in 2024, before a weaker year in 2025. The current jump looks partly like the return of big commercial-scale financings to a category that has attracted substantial capital before.

Why is thermal energy storage attracting so much money now?

Thermal energy storage is attracting much larger investments because companies such as Antora are moving from technology development into industrial deployment.

The category raised $678.9 million in disclosed funding during 2026, representing 16.8% of the energy storage market. Its deal count remained unchanged at eight, exactly as in 2025 and 2024.

Antora's $550 million Series C explains most of the increase. But the financing didn't arrive in isolation.

In April 2026, Antora announced two additional manufacturing facilities in San Jose, doubling its manufacturing and operations footprint. In May, the company and POET announced the commissioning of a 5 GWh thermal storage system at POET's bioprocessing facility in Big Stone City, South Dakota.

The project uses more than 200 thermal batteries to deliver around-the-clock industrial energy under a long-term agreement. It moved from initial construction to energy delivery in less than a year, according to the companies.

Antora is already manufacturing systems, commissioning customer projects and expanding production capacity. Its financing reflects that commercial progress, while the wider thermal storage category remains small by transaction count.

Is sodium-ion energy storage finally taking off?

Sodium-ion energy storage is gaining momentum in the number of startups receiving funding, even though we can't yet confirm a comparable boom in investment dollars.

The category recorded nine financings in 2026, up from five in 2025. Its share of total energy storage deals increased from 6.7% to 14.5%, making it one of the clearest category-level increases in transaction activity.

That stands out because lithium-ion deal volume fell, while thermal and long-duration storage remained flat.

Our dataset contains only $34.4 million of exact disclosed sodium-ion financing for 2026. However, seven of the nine transactions lack precise numeric amounts, so the capital total substantially understates what may have been invested.

Sodium-ion's commercial appeal is understandable. The chemistry can reduce dependence on lithium and certain other battery materials, potentially making it attractive for stationary storage applications where weight and energy density matter less than cost and material availability.

More sodium-ion businesses are raising capital. What we still can't establish is whether the typical round is getting larger.

Energy storage category	2026 deals	2025 deals	2026 capital	Capital share
Lithium-ion batteries	36	47	$2,123.7M	52.7%
Metal-air & long-duration	4	4	$1,093.8M	27.1%
Thermal energy storage	8	8	$678.9M	16.8%
Flow batteries	4	4	$82.6M	2.0%
Sodium-ion batteries	9	5	$34.4M	0.9%
Hydrogen energy storage	1	5	$17.4M	0.4%
Compressed air & mechanical	0	2	$0M	0.0%

Is AI data center demand pushing energy storage funding higher?

AI data center demand is helping create much bigger commercial opportunities for energy storage companies, particularly those capable of supplying power over long periods.

The strongest example is Form Energy's agreement with Crusoe. Announced in March 2026, the arrangement reserves 12 GWh of multi-day battery systems for future AI infrastructure.

Google's planned data center in Minnesota provides another concrete example. Its agreement with Xcel Energy includes 300 MW of Form Energy iron-air battery storage, alongside additional wind and solar generation. Google is paying for the electricity infrastructure associated with its project under a dedicated commercial arrangement.

Antora is also targeting data centers, but with a different technology. Its thermal batteries can supply industrial heat or electricity, and the company's manufacturing expansion is partly aimed at meeting demand from large energy users.

Base Power approaches electricity constraints from the residential side. Its distributed home battery network can provide backup power and support utilities during peak demand, potentially reducing some of the pressure on existing infrastructure.

These businesses won't all benefit from AI in the same way. Still, data centers have become a meaningful customer opportunity for multi-day storage, and the industry's growing electricity needs are influencing how storage companies position their products.

We can't attribute the market's entire funding increase to AI infrastructure. But agreements involving 12 GWh of reserved capacity and a planned 30 GWh installation are substantial commercial developments, not simply speculative demand projections.

Is energy storage funding moving toward the United States?

US companies are capturing a much larger share of disclosed energy storage funding, even though Europe currently records more transactions than North America.

North America accounted for approximately 78.8% of measured investment dollars in 2026, an increase of more than 36 percentage points from 2025.

Base Power, Form Energy and Antora Energy explain much of that dominance. Together, these three US businesses raised $2.30 billion, equivalent to more than half the global total recorded in our research.

Europe remained active across a broader number of transactions, while Asia-Pacific accounted for nearly one-third of global deals.

The Asian capital figures need special care. The region represented less than 5% of exact disclosed funding, but several financings lack precise amounts.

Shenzhen INX Technology, for example, reportedly secured more than $100 million in 2026. We excluded that amount from exact funding calculations because the final figure wasn't available.

North America's lead in disclosed dollars is substantial. The comparison becomes less definitive when trying to account for capital invested through transactions whose precise amounts were never published.

Are energy storage investors getting more selective?

Energy storage investors are putting more money into previously funded companies, and that preference is particularly visible in the biggest transactions.

As seen above, first-time funding activity has dropped sharply, while follow-on deal volume has remained steady. Advanced-stage financings also account for a large portion of the money raised.

The narrower group of disclosed lead investors supports a similar interpretation, although with less certainty. We identified 60 distinct reported lead investors in 2026, compared with 77 in 2025. Incomplete lead-investor disclosure means we can't confidently attribute the entire difference to investors leaving the market.

Corporate investors haven't suddenly taken over either. Named strategic-investor participation represented 24.2% of deals in 2026, compared with 25.3% a year earlier.

Still, strategic capital appears in several major financings. Form Energy's Series G included GE Vernova, alongside financial institutions such as T. Rowe Price and Franklin Templeton. Antora's Series C included Salesforce Ventures and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures.

The clearest evidence of selectivity is the collapse in first financings alongside increasingly large rounds for established companies. The investor mix itself hasn't changed nearly as dramatically.

Is energy storage becoming a more mature startup market?

Energy storage funding is becoming more focused on companies that can build and deliver commercial systems, although that doesn't mean the typical funded startup is suddenly much older.

Three Series D+ transactions accounted for approximately $1.85 billion in disclosed funding during 2026. Four Series C transactions contributed another $798.5 million.

Together, those seven deals represented almost two-thirds of the market's measured capital.

Form Energy is scaling manufacturing at its West Virginia facility, Antora has expanded its California production footprint, and Base Power is developing a large distributed network of residential battery systems.

The expenses involved are very different from those of early software startups. A storage business may need to manufacture hundreds of physical units, commission installations, secure industrial sites and finance inventory well before customers generate enough revenue to cover expansion.

Yet the data doesn't show a comparable rise in the median age of funded companies. Seed and Series A businesses also continue to represent the majority of transactions.

The maturity shift is strongest among the companies receiving the largest investments. Commercial readiness and the ability to execute major projects are carrying more weight at the top end of the funding market.

Could 2026 become the biggest year ever for energy storage funding?

Energy storage funding could finish 2026 ahead of recent full-year totals, but that outcome remains heavily dependent on additional large financings.

By September 15, the market had raised $4.03 billion, already equivalent to 83.1% of the $4.85 billion recorded during the whole of 2025.

It had also exceeded the complete 2024 funding total of approximately $2.82 billion by 43.1%.

Deal activity is much less impressive. The 62 transactions recorded through mid-September represented just 52.1% of 2025's full-year count of 119 deals.

Storage fundraising is particularly sensitive to the timing of manufacturing and infrastructure investment. Another round comparable with those of Form Energy or Antora could materially change the annual total, while dozens of smaller financings would have a much smaller effect.

There are also differences in financing structures to account for. Some historical transactions, including equity commitments recorded in 2025, may not be directly comparable with conventional cash equity rounds. We therefore avoid interpreting all disclosed dollar amounts as interchangeable.

A record for disclosed capital is plausible. A record for the number of companies successfully raising funding looks considerably harder to achieve.

What is actually changing in energy storage funding?

Energy storage funding is becoming more concentrated around companies preparing to manufacture and deploy commercial systems at scale, while fewer startups are securing their first investments.

The decline in financing breadth is substantial. Deals fell 17.3%, funded companies declined 18.9%, and first financings dropped from 27 to 14. These are among the clearest changes in the market this year.

The increase in disclosed capital is heavily dependent on big transactions. Nine financings above $100 million account for roughly 81% of the total. Without rounds exceeding $50 million, growth falls to just 8.7%.

Lithium-ion continues to lead by deal count, while thermal and long-duration storage are winning a much larger share of investment dollars. Sodium-ion is showing a different kind of progress, with more startups receiving funding but too little amount disclosure to establish how quickly total investment is growing.

Commercial deployment is increasingly central to the biggest rounds. Form Energy's projects for utilities and AI infrastructure, Antora's industrial installations, and Base Power's distributed residential batteries all demonstrate why investors are providing substantial capital to companies building physical infrastructure.

There's still room for new energy storage businesses, especially at Seed stage, but the industry's most visible funding growth is being captured by companies that have already raised capital and are now scaling operations.

Much larger investments for selected businesses, then, alongside a shrinking pool of funded startups. That's the defining tension in energy storage funding this year.