Tualatin battery-maker raises $13.2M

March 18th 2020

ZincFive Inc., a Tualatin company that makes batteries for backup power using a proprietary technology, said Wednesday it raised $13.2 million in a Series C funding round.

The round was led by 40 North Ventures, a related investment business of Standard Industries that last October launched a $200 million fund aimed at emerging technologies in the “industrial space.”

Marc van den Berg, the fund’s managing director, joins the ZincFive board with the investment.

“The opportunity to partner with 40 North Ventures provides the capital and strategic relationships to bring nickel-zinc batteries into new global growth segments,” Tim Hysell, ZincFive’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

ZincFive’s rechargeable nickel-zinc battery systems are billed as a better alternative to lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. A common deployment is in traffic control systems — the company says its products are used now by more than 150 transportation departments in North America — but the company is also targeting data centers and other mission critical operations.

ZincFive announced an $11 million Series B round in January 2018, and at the time said it had raised a total of $14 million. But with the Series C round, it said total funding since inception was now at $40 million.

The company said in 2018 that it had around 100 employees, with 35 locally joining a handful around the country. The rest were in Shenzhen, China, where it sourced batteries manufactured into systems in Oregon.

The company wasn’t immediately available to comment on how the coronavirus outbreak might be affecting its supply chain or operations.