BlueRun Ventures | Cloud Storage New Energy Closes Tens of Millions of RMB in Series A Funding to Build Digital Energy Computing System

Cloud Storage New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cloud Storage New Energy") recently completed a tens of millions of RMB Series A funding round. The round was led by Qiandao Fund, with Zhenghai Group participating as a co-investor. The proceeds will be used primarily for capacity expansion, technology R&D, and working capital.

BlueRun Ventures led Cloud Storage New Energy's Pre-A round. Founded in 2012, Cloud Storage New Energy is a provider of core network equipment, solutions, and operational services for the energy internet. The company currently has GWh-scale digital energy storage system delivery capabilities, with its vertical industry solutions already widely deployed in power-source-side/grid-side/user-side digital energy storage systems, as well as digital UPS systems for base stations, equipment rooms, and data centers.

In the past two years, energy storage has become one of the most closely watched segments in the new energy industry chain. Energy storage can effectively resolve the contradiction between the intermittency of new energy supply from wind and solar power and the continuity of user electricity demand. It is expected to play a key role in new power systems with new energy as the mainstay, and is considered the biggest opportunity in the second half of the new energy transition.

Against this backdrop, the safety and economic viability of energy storage systems have remained core concerns for the industry, as well as critical factors for the development of China's electrochemical energy storage sector. They determine whether the industry can achieve scaled development and unlock a trillion-RMB market.

In current energy storage systems, information flow and energy flow belong to different management and control systems, and these systems lack tightly coupled interconnection mechanisms. Take energy storage systems as an example: energy management is generally handled by BMS/EMS/PCS together. The core problem here is that both BMS and EMS are control systems for milliwatt-level signals, while PCS is a control system for kilowatt-level signals. The three management and control systems have no interconnection mechanism, yet they control the same battery pack — this is the fundamental cause of current issues with battery energy storage system efficiency, reliability, safety, and cost.

Cloud Storage New Energy has broken through the original superimposed system integration model, developing a digital energy processing and computing system that can use a single control system to process both milliwatt-level and kilowatt-level signals simultaneously. This fuses the multiple relatively independent management and control systems required in traditional solutions into a single information-energy deeply coupled management and control system.

Gao Hong, general manager of Cloud Storage New Energy, stated that this system fundamentally resolves cost and efficiency problems caused by the separate processing of information flow and energy flow, achieving decoupling between individual battery cells and the battery energy storage system. This technical paradigm can also be applied to photovoltaic power generation, vehicle batteries, and even power distribution.

"'Dynamic reconfigurable battery network technology' was first proposed globally in 2006 by our chief scientist Dr. Ci Song. It is currently the only inherently safe technical system in the battery energy storage field, and the only system that fundamentally eliminates the battery 'weak link effect' at the principle level," Gao Hong said. "This technology overturns the fixed series-parallel battery application paradigm that has existed for over 200 years since the invention of batteries, fundamentally solving the 'weak link effect' problem in battery systems."

Schematic comparison of battery management principles between reconfigurable battery networks and fixed series-parallel battery packs

In traditional rigid battery fixed series-parallel systems, the more battery cells included, the more pronounced the weak link effect becomes. A fault in any single battery cell can drag down the entire system, compromising overall safety. For this reason, battery manufacturers worldwide have consistently pursued battery consistency.

Cloud Storage New Energy's solution replaces the fixed series-parallel rigid system with a program-controlled flexible connection system. It treats each battery module as an energy management node, enabling the removal of suspected faulty battery modules to eliminate the weak link effect in battery systems.

According to reports, Cloud Storage New Energy's participation in the "100MW-level Dynamic Reconfigurable Battery Energy Storage Technology (Common Key Technologies)" project received support from the 2023 National Key R&D Program's "Energy Storage and Smart Grid Technology" key special project.

With its unique differentiated digital energy storage technology, Cloud Storage New Energy has established partnerships with major state-owned enterprise leaders including China Mobile, China Tower, Huadian, Three Gorges, State Grid, and Southern Power Grid, creating multiple industry benchmark projects. According to Gao Hong, Cloud Storage New Energy's revenue exceeded 200 million RMB in 2023, with signed orders surpassing 700 million RMB. Multiple orders are currently being delivered, and the company is in an explosive growth phase this year.

On the team side, Cloud Storage founder and chief scientist Ci Song is a researcher and PhD advisor at Tsinghua University's Department of Electrical Engineering, an IEEE Fellow, director of the Information Energy Ministry of Education-China Mobile Joint Laboratory, and a global visiting professor at Germany's Technical University of Munich. He was formerly a tenured professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the United States, chief scientist of the National Energy Administration's China Energy Internet Development Strategy Research Group, and has led multiple national-level projects. General manager Gao Hong previously served as global vice president at Hitachi and ABB, with over 30 years of management experience in the power and industrial sectors. The company has a team of over 200 people in management, R&D, production, and delivery, and continues to recruit professional talent.

Currently, China's domestic electrochemical energy storage market is in a rapid development phase. Multiple authoritative institutions predict that China's new energy storage installations will double year-over-year in 2024. Gao Hong stated that Cloud Storage New Energy will focus over the next two years on continuously promoting its dynamic reconfigurable battery energy storage products and iterating its vertical industry solutions, gradually forming an energy-storage-as-a-service business model, and striving to become a leading enterprise in the energy internet and energy storage fields.

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Established in 2005, BlueRun Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups.

Currently, BlueRun Ventures manages over 15 billion RMB in assets under management, making it one of the largest early-stage funds in China. Its investment stage focuses on Pre-A and Series A rounds, covering technology, consumer, and healthcare sectors. It has cumulatively invested in over 200 startup companies, including Li Auto, Waterdrop, QingCloud, Guazi.com, Qudian, Ganji.com, Monster Charging, Gaussian Robotics, Songguo Mobility, Yuntu Semiconductor, Machenike, CloudSaint Intelligence, Anxin NetShield, and BioMap.

BlueRun Ventures has been ranked first in Zero2IPO's "China's Top 30 Early-Stage Investment Institutions," first in ChinaVenture's "China's Best Early-Stage Venture Capital Institutions TOP30," and among Preqin's Top 10 globally consistent high-return VC fund managers.

Additionally, BlueRun Ventures has received consecutive honors from Forbes China, 36Kr, Cyzone, Caixin Media, CBNweekly, Jiemian, and other media institutions, including "China's Best Early-Stage Institution of the Year," "China's Top Venture Capital Institution," "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Early-Stage Institution of the Year," and "Most Influential Early-Stage Institution of the Year."