4energy raises £1M in venture round

Investment round completed

4energy Ltd, which has developed cooling systems to regulate the temperature of industrial electronic equipment, raised £1 million from Carbon Trust Investments and Catapult Venture Managers Ltd.

The company says its cooling systems reduce the energy used to regulate the temperature of critical industrial electronic equipment by up to 90 per cent. The systems have been installed by companies including Vodafone, EDF Energy and Scottish Power Energy Networks.

Telecommunication, computing and ancillary infrastructure needs to be kept at regulated temperatures in order for it to function correctly. The traditional approach has been to use conventional air conditioning systems such as vapour compression refrigeration, to maintain the correct temperatures. 4energy systems use passive cooling technologies with few moving parts, increasing reliability and reducing energy consumption and maintenance. 

The funding will enable 4energy to adapt its technologies for a wider international market, especially those countries with rapidly expanding telecommunications infrastructures such as India, China, Russia and Brazil. 

The technology is also appropriate for cooling of data centres and computer rooms, which it is estimated contribute up to 15 per cent of the carbon footprint of industrial and commercial buildings.

4energy will use the funding to roll-out global trials of its telecommunication base station cooling technology, extend its distribution network and continue investment in cooling technology for places such as data centres.

Jonathan Bryers, Investment Partner at Carbon Trust Investment Partners, said, “With air conditioning a significant and rising cost to businesses around the world, and companies facing increasing pressure to reduce emissions, we believe we will see increasing demand for 4energy’s technology in the years ahead. It has many attractions to businesses given the low capital costs and low cost retrofit capability.”

Pete Le Noury, Investment Director with Catapult Venture Managers, added, “We originally backed this management team as an early stage investment and have been impressed with the way they have developed, trialled and installed their cooling technology with a number of significant infrastructure companies – clearly demonstrating large energy and CO2 savings.”