Sequoia Invests $100M in Form Energy to Support Iron-Air Battery Scaling and the AI Grid

Sequoia Invests $100M in Form Energy to Support Iron-Air Battery Scaling and the AI Grid Sequoia Capital announced a $100M investment in Form Energy, an iron-air battery manufacturer founded by former Tesla energy executive Mateo Jaramillo, aiming to scale multi-day grid storage amid growing power demand from AI. Form Energy was founded by Mateo Jaramillo, Yet-Ming Chiang, and Billy Woodford to develop low-cost iron-air batteries capable of storing energy for multiple days. The company established its first high-volume manufacturing facility on a former steel mill site in West Virginia, creating more than 400 jobs. Form Energy secured a major hyperscale project order as AI grid demand surged, following a period of complex manufacturing scaling. Sequoia initially proposed a $50M investment after the Series G round closed, but upsized the commitment to $100M after a partnership presentation. Iron-Air Battery Concept and Leadership Form Energy was created to solve the limitation of lithium-ion batteries, which typically hold grid-scale energy for only 4 to 6 hours rather than multiple days. Led by former Tesla energy head Mateo Jaramillo alongside Chief Scientist Yet-Ming Chiang and CTO Billy Woodford, the company developed iron-air battery chemistry utilizing cheap and abundant iron and air to compete with gas peaker plants and deliver clean, reliable baseload energy. Domestic Manufacturing and Scaling The company constructed its primary high-volume battery factory on the grounds of a shuttered steel mill in West Virginia, bringing over 400 jobs to the area. To navigate early production challenges and manufacturing scale-up, Jaramillo relocated his family from San Francisco to Western Pennsylvania near the facility, steering the company through manufacturing hurdles before securing a contract for a large hyperscale project. AI Demand and Sequoia's $100M Investment Rising power needs for AI transformed grid expansion into an urgent requirement, placing Form Energy in position to serve hyperscalers alongside traditional utilities. Although Form Energy had already concluded its Series G financing round, Sequoia approached the company to participate, initially proposing $50M before doubling the investment to $100M after Jaramillo presented to the firm's partnership.

红杉资本向铁空气电池制造商 Form Energy 投资 1 亿美元 红杉资本宣布向长时储能公司 Form Energy 投资 1 亿美元。该公司利用铁空气电池技术应对可再生能源多日存储挑战，并在西弗吉尼亚州推进本土制造，旨在满足 AI 快速增长带来的电网基荷电力需求。 Form Energy 研发成本可与天然气调峰电站竞争的铁空气电池，以解决锂电池难以实现多日电网储能的问题。 该公司在西弗吉尼亚州原废弃钢铁厂选址建设高产能制造基地，创造了 400 多个就业岗位。 在经历量产瓶颈期后，Form Energy 获得大型超大规模（hyperscale）项目订单。 红杉资本在 Form Energy 完成 G 轮融资后追加沟通，并将原定的 5000 万美元投资额度上调至 1 亿美元。 技术定位与团队背景 前特斯拉能源业务负责人 Mateo Jaramillo 与电池科学家蒋业明、CTO Billy Woodford 联合创办了 Form Energy。针对风能和太阳能接入电网后锂电池仅能存储 4 至 6 小时能量的局限，团队基于第一性原理，选用廉价丰富的铁和免费的空气开发铁空气电池，旨在为电网提供清洁可靠的多日基荷储能，并能在成本上直接竞争天然气调峰电站。 本土量产历程与产能突破 Form Energy 在西弗吉尼亚州一处废弃钢厂旧址建立了首座大规模电池制造基地，重振当地制造业并设立了 400 多个工作岗位。在量产推进阶段，首席执行官 Mateo Jaramillo 将家庭迁至工厂附近的宾夕法尼亚州西部，带领团队经历并渡过了严苛的“生产地狱”阶段，随后成功锁定了超大规模项目订单。 AI 催化需求与红杉注资 人工智能的发展使得重构电网从非必要需求转变为刚需，为拥有成熟公用事业与监管关系的 Form Energy 带来了太瓦（terawatt）级别的市场机遇。尽管 Form Energy 此前已完成 G 轮融资，红杉资本合伙人在实地考察及听取汇报后，将原计划的 5000 万美元投资额加码至 1 亿美元。

There are certain companies you can’t stop thinking about. During my garden leave before joining Sequoia, I kept thinking about Form Energy. During my family vacations, I’d tell my siblings about Form Energy. For me, it was always one of these companies that represented what venture capital was all about: a phenomenal team of entrepreneurs pursuing a world-changing idea that, if successful, could scale into a category-defining company. I first met Mateo Jaramillo , the CEO of Form Energy, in spring 2020. It was a memorable meeting because it was the first in-person founder meeting I had in the COVID pandemic and we were all wearing masks. At that time, Mateo described a simple idea: solar and wind were going to take over the grid, but we needed batteries to store that energy. Lithium-ion was a great chemistry for cars, and it could store grid-scale energy for 4-6 hours, but it was never going to store energy for multiple days. Thinking from first principles, Mateo, who previously started and ran Tesla’s energy business, had assembled the battery Avengers, including legendary battery scientist Yet-Ming Chiang as Chief Scientist and Billy Woodford as CTO. The team set their sights on building an iron-air battery: iron, because it’s cheap and abundant, and air, because it’s free. The goal was to turn those cheap materials into a battery that could compete with gas peaker plants on cost while delivering a clean and reliable baseload energy resource. Knowing very little about batteries at the time, I reached out to a group of professors to diligence whether the science worked. I ended up selecting a Harvard professor and hired him as a consultant. At the end of the project, he gave us a thumbs up, and as a sign of his excitement, asked if he could roll his consulting fee into our investment. When I arrived at Sequoia in mid-2023, Mateo was one of my first calls. At that time he was just starting construction on Form Energy’s first high-volume battery manufacturing facility, located on a shuttered steel mill site in West Virginia. I flew out for a factory visit with my partner Isaiah Boone in July 2024, and we were astounded. So many companies come to us talking about reindustrializing America, and here was a company that was actually doing it, and creating more than 400 new jobs along the way. Given that China is the epicenter of battery manufacturing globally, we were energized by the potential to build a US national battery champion, starting with a fundamentally new technology, which is what America excels at. The following year, the company went through what is colloquially termed “production hell.” This is exactly what Tesla, SpaceX and others had gone through before them. If you really want to reindustrialize this country, these things don’t happen overnight, and they are far from easy. Companies that go through this gauntlet come out sturdier and stronger. To Mateo and the team’s credit, they doubled down. He had by then relocated his entire family from San Francisco to Western Pennsylvania, a short drive from the plant. Having experienced this type of scaling at Tesla, Mateo knew what to do: live it, sleep it, breathe it — until you've pulled through. And pull through he did. I knew he’d turned the corner when finally, the company received the order that everyone knew would eventually come: a large hyperscale project. Nine years in, Form had done the thing it set out to do: build battery systems that can compete with gas. In the meantime, luck worked in their favor too: AI provided a huge catalyst in the market, where suddenly rebuilding the grid went from “nice to have” to “need to have.” As an AI investor, this company, which had spent years building deep relationships with utilities and regulators, was now in a prime position to serve emergent AI demand. Isaiah and I flew back to West Virginia, exactly two years after our prior visit. This time we had an agenda: convince Mateo to partner with Sequoia. Although he’d already closed his Series G round, we persuaded him to let us invest. Initially, we proposed a $50M investment. But when Mateo came to present to the Sequoia partnership, they were so blown away by his clarity of vision and substantive, execution-oriented mindset that we upsized to $100M. As I wrote in my very first note to Sequoia in 2023 about Form Energy, this is a company like SpaceX or Nvidia where it can take a decade to get off the ground, but once you get off the ground, the market opportunity is very large — Form is addressing a terawatt-scale market. The opportunity to now scale up from a handful of initial projects toward completely transforming the US grid is tremendous. Not only that, but it is no longer optional — it is something that we as a country will absolutely have to do for AI to achieve its long-term potential.