Powin has landed its biggest investment yet as it competes for a leading spot in the global battery energy storage race — $135 million from a group that includes Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC.
Trilantic North America and Energy Impact Partners, who poured $100 million into the Portland metro company in February 2021, taking a controlling interest, also participated in the equity round.
Just last month, Powin announced an unspecified investment from the venture arm of Samsung C&T.
Powin is at the heart of an energy revolution as utilities and grid operators turn to big battery installations to help bring intermittent renewables like solar and wind power onto their systems.
Since diving headlong into the business in late 2016, the former consumer-goods contract-manufacturing firm has earned a place “in the upper echelons of the energy storage integration market with the likes of Tesla, Fluence and Wartsila,” industry-watcher Greentech Media wrote last year.
Powin designs and manufactures systems, and has leveraged strong battery management software and strengths in sourcing battery cells in Asia and in navigating supply chain challenges to grow.
The company, with offices in Portland and Tualatin, was No. 2 on the Business Journal’s list of fastest-growing private companies in the 2018-2020 period as revenue rose from $18 million to $114 million, and had about 130 Oregon-based employees as of early this year.
