ADB Ventures Participates in Switchgear nuventura’s Second Closing of Seed Funding Round

Nuventura, the Berlin-based developer of switchgear technologies that help eliminate Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) – the world’s strongest greenhouse gas – is pleased to reveal that ADB Ventures (the Asian Development Bank’s venture arm) participated in a second closing of nuventura’s seed investment round in 2021. ADB Ventures joined existing investors, including Cycle Group, Future Energy Ventures, Doen Participaties, IBB Ventures, and several well-known investors. Collaborating with ADB will help nuventura make important steps toward the product’s industrialization and expansion into Asian markets.

Nuventura develops medium voltage (MV) gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), replacing SF6 with dry air. Through this patented technology, the company’s goal is to help tackle annual SF6 emissions, equivalent to the yearly CO2 emissions produced by approximately 100 million cars.

Instead of acting as manufacturers, nuventura makes it possible for established switchgear manufacturers to expand their own product portfolios with SF6-free GIS technologies. The company does this by either selling key components to manufacturers which then get incorporated into own their switchgear designs or licensing the full technology. This highly scalable business model ensures that nuventura’s customers gain access to state-of-the-art GIS technologies while avoiding the prohibitively high R&D costs associated with developing their own new GIS technologies.

Commenting on the investment from ADB Ventures, Manjunath Ramesh, nuventura’s CTO and Co-Founder, said “we are delighted to welcome ADB as one of our investors and strong supporters. We believe that ADB will be a vitally important partner as we actively expand our focus to Asian markets. Asia is a very attractive market environment, offers large opportunities for growth, and has shown a growing appetite for sustainable solutions. Nuventura, with ADB’s support, will be at the forefront of making the Asian energy transition SF6-free.”

“Nuventura has developed a game-changing solution with clear benefits to both grid operators and climate. We believe that the company’s proprietary tech and unique licensing model will put it in a very competitive position in a growing $26bn market while leading the transition towards a more environmentally sustainable electrical grid infrastructure,” said Qiyong Cao, Senior Investment Specialist at ADB Ventures.