Sep 18, 2006
Element Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson Share the Round
Fremont, California - Deeya Energy, a developer of novel energy storage systems, announced today that it has raised its first venture capital funding round from Element Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The investment will be used for product development and global market expansion.
Deeya Energy is a clean technology start-up developing and manufacturing electrochemical energy storage systems based on its proprietary L-Cell technology. Deeya L-Cells have much better charging and discharging performance while being much cheaper than other batteries. Besides, the L-Cells contain environmentally benign materials and are infinitely recyclable, as opposed to the kinds of materials used in other batteries, such as lead-acid.
Deeya’s Founder, Dr. Saroj Sahu, an Applied Physicist, has worked in technology leadership positions at Raychem/Tyco Electronics, Jasmine Networks, and Santec Corp, prior to founding Deeya Energy. Saroj has over 60 publications in international journals, 1 published book and 1 US patent, with several pending.
“Saroj and his team have the blend of scientific know-how and market experience to make a commercially viable breakthrough in clean energy, and we are proud to support their vision”, said Sujit Banerjee, Partner, BlueRun Ventures.
“We are really excited about the broad opportunities that Deeya's technology can address, including peak-off-peak Load Shifting, renewable backup for the global solar and wind rollouts and the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) market, particularly for developing regions like India where power availability and quality are significant issues.” said Raj Atluru, Managing Director, DFJ.
“In addition to providing energy storage at lower costs than today's products, the substitution of non-toxic materials in Deeya's L-Cells for the toxic materials and heavy metals in today's products provides an additional economic benefit for customers as it reduces the costs associated with the recycling and disposal of their energy storage products," said John Rockwell, Managing Director, Element Partners.
"This investment will help Deeya complete its product development and engage with customers" said Saroj Sahu, Founder, CTO & VP Engineering of Deeya Energy. "In addition, Element Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and DFJ will all bring tremendous business and clean tech experience - as well as a global presence - to help us execute on our strategic business objectives."
About Deeya Energy
Deeya Energy Inc. is a Fremont, California.-based developer of energy storage devices for the load-shifting, uninterruptible power supply and renewable energy markets. Deeya’s investors include Element Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. For more information, visit www.deeyaenergy.com.
About Element Partners
Element Partners is a leading venture capital fund investing in clean technology. Element invests in emerging companies bringing innovative solutions to environmental and resource constraints in energy, water and other large industrial and commercial markets. Element Partners is managed by the industry's most experienced group of dedicated clean technology investors. The Element principals manage more than $800 million in the clean technology assets.
About BlueRun Ventures
Launched in 1998, BlueRun Ventures is a leading early stage venture capital fund. BlueRun Ventures' proven approach is to invest globally as a single fund in best-of-breed technologies and teams with the drive and ability to build leading global companies. BlueRun Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with offices in Helsinki, Herzelia (Israel), New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.brv.com.
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the only venture capital firm with global presence through a network of affiliated funds, with offices in more than 30 cities around the world and approximately $3.5 billion in capital commitments. DFJ's mission is to identify, provide capital for, and serve extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who want to change the world. Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to back approximately 300 companies across a myriad of sectors including such industry changing catalysts as Hotmail (acquired by MFST), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Interwoven (IWOV), 411 (acquired by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID). For more information, visit www.dfj.com.
