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Amsterdam-based Moonwatt, an energy storage startup with ambitious plans to redefine solar power, has successfully raised €8 million to accelerate its breakthrough sodium-ion battery system. This innovative technology could fundamentally transform how solar energy is stored and utilized, addressing some of the sector’s biggest challenges.
The funding round was co-led by Daphni and LEA Partners, with additional backing from Founders Future, AFI Ventures (by Ventech), Kima Ventures, and a group of strategic business angels and customers.
Zukui Hu, CEO and Co-founder of Moonwatt said: “We started our product design from a blank sheet of paper, freeing ourselves from legacy features inherited from other segments of the battery industry, with the goal of designing a system from scratch that is fundamentally cheaper, safer and more reliable. Our vision is a product that can be deployed anywhere and that can be scaled up multiple orders of magnitude without facing raw materials scarcity.”
Founded in 2024 by former Tesla Energy colleagues Zukui Hu (CEO), Guillaume Mancini (CTO), and Valentin Rota (CCO), Moonwatt is on a mission to transform energy storage from a bottleneck into a catalyst—ushering in a new era of solar-powered resilience.
Despite its rapid expansion—scaling faster than any energy source in history—solar power remains plagued by one major issue: it’s not dispatchable 24/7. When the sun shines, solar floods the grid with power, often overwhelming infrastructure and driving energy prices to unsustainable lows. But as night falls, supply dwindles, leaving a gaping hole in the energy market.
This intermittency crisis is a double-edged sword. More than 3,000 GW of renewable projects are stalled in grid backlogs. At the same time, wholesale energy prices routinely plunge below zero, forcing plant owners to either halt production or sell at a loss. The missing piece? Storage solutions capable of keeping solar-generated power flowing long after sunset.
Paul Bazin, Partner at Daphni, said: “Renewable power growth has exceeded all expectations, but we’re approaching a tipping point where it won’t be able to scale further without better energy storage. Created by industry veterans, Moonwatt is solving this with a differentiated storage product built specifically for solar – this is the breakthrough the industry has been missing.”
Today’s lithium-based batteries, designed initially for EVs, were never optimized for large-scale solar storage. They depend on scarce, costly materials and an increasingly fragile supply chain. Moonwatt sees this as a fundamental flaw—and a €379+ billion opportunity.
Moritz Pagel, Investor at LEA Partners, said: “By focusing on sodium-ion, Moonwatt represents a paradigm shift, finally making 24/7 renewable power truly competitive and unlocking massive value for operators and consumers. We’ve been amazed by the complementary skillset and execution power of the team and are excited to back Moonwatt.”
Instead of adapting legacy technology, Moonwatt is building from scratch—designing a storage solution specifically for solar. Their sodium-ion battery technology offers a 1000x more abundant, 3x cheaper, and safer alternative to lithium-ion, providing a truly scalable and cost-competitive energy storage option.
By integrating storage directly with solar plants, Moonwatt’s system could boost capacity factors from 15-20% to 80%, dramatically cutting reliance on expensive grid upgrades while stabilizing energy prices and slashing congestion.
This bold approach is part of Moonwatt’s mission to unlock solar’s full potential as a supplementary energy source and the dominant global power provider. At full scale, the company estimates its solution could help reduce up to 14 GtCO₂ per year by 2050, an impact that would redefine the future of clean energy.
Marc Menasé, Founding Partner at Founders Future, said: “At the heart of every game-changing innovation is an exceptional team. Moonwatt combines world-class expertise with relentless execution to tackle one of the biggest challenges in renewable energy: scalable and cost-efficient storage. Their visionary approach and breakthrough technology have the potential to transform how we store and distribute clean energy, and we’re proud to support them on this journey.”
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