Pully-based SolidWatts has secured €1.9 million (CHF 1.8 million) in Seed funding to advance the event and commercialisation of its industrial course of heating know-how – getting ready for market entry because it scales its platform and initiates pilot initiatives with industrial companions.
The spherical noticed continued dedication from current traders Evercurious VC, Kickfund and Axel Carbon Capital, whereas welcoming a brand new cohort of backers together with Uni.Fund, Investing for Goal, Loggerhead Ventures, Almanac Ventures and a gaggle of angel traders.
“This funding is an amazing endorsement of our mission to rework how {industry} consumes vitality and permits us to carry RF know-how to the ability ranges and efficiencies that {industry} really wants,” says Dr Markus Aicheler, Founder and CTO of SolidWatts.
SolidWatts’ Seed spherical might be set in opposition to a broader run of funding in industrial decarbonisation and vitality methods. Comparable bulletins embrace Dutch industrial-heat firm RIFT, which raised €113.8 million to ship its first business industrial warmth challenge; French heavy-industry vitality firm Spark Cleantech, which secured €30 million to scale cleaner vitality methods for heavy {industry}; Swiss energy-transition platform enshift, which raised €18.5 million to increase built-in energy-transition options; Barcelona-based WtEnergy, which picked up €10 million to scale vitality restoration from industrial waste and biomass; and Hamburg-based encentive, which raised €6.3 million to increase software program geared toward chopping industrial vitality prices.
Taken along with SolidWatts, these rounds quantity to over €180 million in funding, indicating regular capital circulate into applied sciences linked to industrial warmth, electrification, vitality effectivity and adjoining infrastructure.
The identical-country comparability is enshift, additionally Swiss, which suggests Switzerland is a base for industrial and energy-transition companies, albeit at completely different phases and cheque sizes.
EU-Startups has additionally lined SolidWatts earlier than, reporting its €850k pre-Seed spherical in January 2025.
“Industrial course of heating accounts for round 20% of worldwide vitality demand and roughly 10% of worldwide CO₂ emissions – but it stays one of many hardest sectors to decarbonise. As world vitality demand rises alongside the AI growth, enhancing effectivity turns into important,” provides Dr Aicheler.
Based in 2022, SolidWatt originated from high-power RF purposes utilized in scientific analysis. Drawing on expertise at CERN, the place such methods are deployed in large-scale experiments, the founding workforce recognized a chance to adapt the know-how for industrial vitality use.
SolidWatts develops a solid-state Radio Frequency (RF) platform designed to exchange fossil fuel-based heating methods in industrial purposes. The know-how permits high-power dielectric heating, providing an alternative choice to typical boilers, ovens, and furnaces.
The system operates by producing electromagnetic waves that warmth supplies internally, much like the precept utilized in microwave ovens. This strategy reportedly permits extra direct vitality switch, with over 80% {of electrical} enter transformed into usable heating energy.
In consequence, vitality losses to surrounding infrastructure are diminished, and total course of effectivity improves. The solid-state structure additionally limits upkeep necessities and helps excessive system uptime.
Dr George Georgiadis, Accomplice at Evercurious VC, representing the funding group, provides: “SolidWatts powers the way forward for industrial resilience. Their know-how drives effectivity and gives a transparent path away from fossil gasoline dependency. This funding displays our mission to again European hard-tech champions that clear up real-world issues. We’re scaling an innovator born in Europe and constructed for the world.”
The platform targets energy-intensive industries, together with chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, meals processing, carbon seize, and superior recycling.
Based on the corporate, electrifying even a small share of commercial heating processes may have a measurable environmental affect. Changing simply 1% of those processes with its know-how may cut back world CO2 emissions by an estimated 36 million tonnes yearly – the equal of eradicating 7.8 million vehicles from the highway.
