Charlotte-based energy startup Atom Power closed on a $17.75 million raise this week.
Atom Power was founded in 2014 by CEO Ryan Kennedy and CTO Denis Kouroussis. Their product suite includes a digital circuit breaker called Atom Switch, a distribution panel called Atom Panel and software called Atom OS.
Investors in the Series B include Valor Equity Partners, Rockwell Automation, Inc., ABB Technology Ventures and Atreides Management. Atom Power has raised $23 million in total funding, including a $3 million Series A in 2017.
Valor equity, based in Chicago, is known for its investments in Tesla and SpaceX.
Kennedy said they began working on the raise late last year, thought it almost fell apart after the rapid spread of Covid-19 caused many financial institutions to pull funding intentions from startups across the board.
"That created a pretty significant hardship. We didn’t know quite what we were going to do because so many investors backed out," he said. "We did have some strong investors that didn’t defer because of Covid, and we had a couple of new players that showed up right as Covid was happening, which was interesting."
The funds will be used in a couple of ways, Kennedy said. A portion will go toward company growth, but the majority of the capital will be used to develop and produce technology that's been on Atom Power's roadmap for some time---though Kennedy declined to provide specifics aside from its focus on the automobile industry.
"It was driven by customer interaction and will change the face of how we charge cars," he said.
Kennedy said the tech will be developed out of the company's core products and should be on the market later this year.
"It’s a revolutionary way to think about how we charge vehicles, and that actually drove a lot of the investment," he said. "[Investors] were drawn to that because of what the tech we have offers to the future of charging cars, trucks and fleets."
Atom Power will also be able to bring production of its current products in-house, thanks to the new money. Kennedy said this will give them more flexibility in scaling production size and quality control.
