Cactos builds energy storage systems with old Tesla batteries. It just raised $28.5 million with this 24-slide pitch deck.
Cactos/Mikko-Pekka Karlin
- Finnish energy storage startup has raised 26 million euros ($28.5 million) in fresh funds.
- The cash is part of a separate fund that will be used to finance the roll-out of the batteries.
- Check out the 24-slide pitch deck it used to raise the capital below.
A Finnish startup that uses both recycled Tesla batteries and new batteries to build energy storage systems has raised 26 million euros, $28.5 million, in fresh funds.
Cactos, which was founded in 2021, has developed storage systems that enable companies operating in areas like real estate and logistics to buy energy when it's cheap and plentiful, store it, and use it later.
Oskari Jaakkola, the startup's chief executive, said the electricity market recorded "1,000-fold intraday price fluctuations."
"It obviously gives a very good background for storage, because you know the prices upfront," Jaakkola told Business Insider.
"You're going to be able to buy cheap and sell expensive. So that's really where the idea came from, from the markets."
Case in point: Energy prices were at an all-time high in Finland on January 5. A lack of wind and long, cold stints have meant that energy production is lower, but demand is higher, meaning people pay more, Jaakkola said. The country has also ramped up gas imports as a result.
Cactos owns, operates, and finances the battery storage units for customers, who take on 10-year leases for a monthly fee. The units can be used to power buildings or charge a large fleet of electric vehicles, for example.
It means customers with high energy demands can avoid price volatility and make money by selling energy back to the grid at a profit.
Batteries also offer backup power in the event of an outage and can help optimize the use of home power generation, the company says.
Cactos raised funds in a manner similar to that of an investment fund, splitting its more stable, long-term leasing of assets business from its more high-risk technology play.
"We've developed our technologies ourselves and, in that sense, that part of the company is quite a traditional startup," Jaakkola said.
"Obviously, that's a venture capital play and venture capital funding is expensive."
Jaakkola said the company's "second line of business" was its leasing of storage systems.
"It's a very stable business with a very high degree of fixed cash flows, long-term cash flows from our contracts which are 10 years fixed."
By splitting the two, the energy system roll-out can be funded with a "considerably lower cost of capital" as a typical infrastructure investment, Jaakkola added.
The cash injection is Cactos' first close on its Cactos Fleet Finland Limited Partnership fund, with 26 million euros in equity coming from OP Finland Infrastructure LP and the Finnish Climate Fund.
Cactos aims to raise 35 million euros in equity and 35 million euros in debt in total. It will spend the cash – buying energy storage systems from Cactos – over two and a half years. The fund will be operational for around 10 years, akin to a typical VC fund lifecycle.
Cactos finds the clients, signs a leasing contract with them, and finances the working capital during the construction of the system. Once the system is installed, it is sold to the fund along with the leasing contract, so Cactos gets paid at the point of sale, and the fund receives the recurring revenue. The hardware, then owned by the fund, is managed via Cactos' software platform.
The startup will use the same structure in other markets, with Jaakkola eyeing a central European fund this year. Cactos already has an office in the Netherlands.
Check out the 24-slide pitch deck it used to secure the funds: