Zhonghai Energy Storage

Zhonghai Energy Storage (中海储能) is a Beijing-based energy storage company founded in 2020, focused on iron-chromium flow battery technology for large-scale, long-duration storage applications . The company was established by Xu Quan (徐泉), who built what one report described as a "perfect founding team" pairing a senior academic, CTO, and CEO .

The company has raised multiple rounds from prominent venture investors. In late 2022, it closed consecutive Pre-A and Pre-A+ rounds totaling hundreds of millions of RMB, with Sequoia China, Source Code Capital, Matrix Partners China, and Qingliu Capital participating—Source Code Capital led the Pre-A+ round . In May 2025, Zhonghai announced a further Pre-A++ round exceeding RMB 100 million, led by Ant Group with follow-on from Junheng Investment and Beijing Changping SME Growth Investment Fund . Its earlier backers include Sequoia China, which reportedly issued a term sheet within a week of first contact in September 2022 .

Technically, Zhonghai targets grid-scale deployment with a field-station system design that eliminates container structures to reduce costs, and incorporates waste-heat recovery to improve returns by 5–10% . Its iron-chromium flow batteries have been selected for China's national catalog of first-of-a-kind major technical equipment, and the company holds "National High-Tech Enterprise" and "Beijing Specialized and Innovative SME" designations . In 2025, it secured a bid for a 50MW/300MWh independent energy storage project in Huiyang District with total investment approaching RMB 1 billion, and reported annual production capacity of 1GWh with plans for additional industrial bases .