Verlume to accelerate growth plans with £2.5m investment

Par Equity, a venture capital firm based in Edinburgh, specialises in investing in innovative technology companies and was joined by existing investors, Orchard Venture Capital and Scottish Enterprise. 

Aberdeen-based Verlume offers a suite of products and services across the underwater, offshore and onshore sectors, helping clients to reduce carbon footprint and decarbonise operations. The investment will help it rapidly accelerate its growth as it consolidates its position at the forefront of the energy transition in these sectors. Verlume was previously known as EC-OG and its new branding will underpin the company’s business development strategy.

Verlume’s flagship product, Halo, is a scalable, modular battery energy storage system with integrated intelligent energy management. It is an easily installable, autonomous power source that can integrate with renewable energy systems to create a zero-emission power system at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods of power delivery. 

The company already supplies to a global customer base and is currently involved in a project in the USA. It is supplying the first commercial Halo battery system as part of a world-first sea trial off the coast of Hawaii, where it is part of a wave energy project for the C-Power SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system. 

Richard Knox, Managing Director and Founder of Verlume, said: “As society continues to transition to cleaner energy systems, we have been experiencing greater demand for our decarbonisation solutions. This demand was reflected in our most recent funding round, with it being oversubscribed. 

“Thank you to Par Equity and our existing investors Orchard Venture Capital and Scottish Enterprise for their invaluable support during this process. The investment, alongside our recent rebrand, will allow us to capitalise on the growing opportunities within the energy transition and grow the business at pace.”

Paul Munn, Managing Partner of Par Equity, said: “Par Equity specialises in identifying exciting, transformational technology companies with the potential for high growth. Two years ago, we were able to kick-start Verlume’s growth journey. Since then, we have further developed our capability to lead and coordinate investment consortia and I am delighted that our support will help them achieve the next stage in their expansion plans”.

Kerry Sharp, Director of Growth Investments at Scottish Enterprise, added: “It is great to see the continued growth of Verlume – a company we’ve invested in since 2016 – as it now enters this new chapter. More and more, the finance community is recognising the collective responsibility we all have to maximise the wider impact of our investments, supporting technologies that are sustainable and will help us on the journey to net zero.”