Monday, May 9, 2011

VCharge lands $150K in Slater seed funding

By Rodney H. Brown

Rhode Island energy management and storage startup VCharge has won $150,000 in seed-stage funding from the Slater Technology Fund, an early-stage fund backed by the state of Rhode Island.

Cranston company VCharge uses heat-storage systems to store up energy from renewable sources such as wind to help regional electricity grids to manage the minute-by-minute fluctuations that occur in the grid based on spikes in demand and fluctuations in supply. According to its website, VCharge has a pilot project in Fox Islands, Maine, called the Fox Islands Smart Grid Project, in which it stores power from the islands’ wind turbines and uses that to manage the demand on the “micro-grid” that powers the islands.

The new VCharge funding represents the fourth investment Slater has made in energy and environmental technology sector startups, officials said. Previous investments include Smart Grid startup Alektrona, which develops software and hardware for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and other energy-related applications; ModEnergy, developer of next-generation battery technology for renewable energy; and BioprocessH20, a provider of wastewater treatment solutions.

In March, Slater picked eight students focused on life sciences from Brown University and the University of Rhode Island to be part of its Entrepreneurial Fellows Program for this current academic year, its third annual program.

In addition to its energy sector investments, Slater has backed a number of R.I.-based startups, including Sentient BioSciences, and most recently Cardiorobotics Inc.