Dutch long-duration storage startup Ore Energy announced a $43 million Series A on August 4, 2026, giving the four-year-old company the capital to build its first manufacturing facility and push toward gigawatt-hour production of iron-air batteries by 2028. Venture firms Plural and HV co-led the round, with participation from Positron; total funding now stands at roughly $86 million.
Rusting Iron As A Grid Battery
Ore Energy, founded in 2022 out of TU Delft by CEO Aytac Yilmaz and COO Rutil Ozdemir, builds cells that store electricity by reversibly rusting metallic iron. Charging pulls oxygen off iron oxide to regenerate metal; discharging lets the iron oxidise again, releasing power. The chemistry uses only iron, water and air, sidesteps lithium and cobalt supply chains, and is engineered to deliver electricity for 24 to 100 hours at a targeted cost of under $20 per kWh.
Sized For AI-Era Baseload Demand
Yilmaz framed the raise around a very 2026 problem: how to give AI infrastructure and reindustrialised manufacturing round-the-clock renewable power. "Affordable, renewable baseload power is the foundation for the next generation of manufacturing, AI infrastructure and industrial growth globally," he said. Multi-day storage has become the missing piece as data-center operators sign gigawatt-scale renewable power purchase agreements but still lean on gas for firming.
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From Pilot Deal To Factory Build
Ore Energy is one of only two commercial iron-air players in the world, alongside US-based Form Energy. In June it locked in continental Europe's largest multi-day storage contract — up to 1 GWh with Dutch utility Budget Thuis, beginning with a 400 MWh delivery in 2028. The Series A funds the first factory needed to serve that pipeline and repeat similar deals across Europe.
A Broader Battery Funding Wave
The raise lands in an unusually crowded fortnight for grid-storage capital. Thermal-battery developer Antora Energy closed a $550M Series C to serve data centers, second-life specialist Moment Energy raised $40M for a Texas gigafactory, and Reliance lifted its Jamnagar target to 120 GWh. Investors are increasingly betting that non-lithium chemistries like iron-air will define the multi-day tier of the storage stack.
Reporting based on coverage from ESG Today, Energy-Storage.News and TheNextWeb.