illumion Raises £2.1M to Bring Real-Time Intelligence to Energy Storage Systems

illumion, a Cambridge-based energy technology company, has raised £2.1 million from Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, and Foresight VCT to develop its platform for monitoring and managing energy storage systems. The company has built software that continuously assesses the performance, health, and degradation of battery systems deployed in grid-scale and industrial applications — providing asset owners, operators, and financiers with the data they need to optimise the operation of storage assets, anticipate maintenance requirements, and accurately assess the residual value of battery systems over time.

Energy storage has become one of the most critical infrastructure investments in the transition to renewable electricity. As wind and solar generation scales, grid operators and energy companies need battery storage to balance supply and demand — storing electricity when generation exceeds consumption and discharging when demand peaks or generation falls. The economics of these storage assets depend substantially on how well the batteries are managed: a battery system that is charged and discharged suboptimally will degrade faster, deliver less value over its lifetime, and create uncertainty for the financial models that underpin project financing.

The challenge is that battery performance is complex and non-linear. Degradation is driven by a combination of factors — depth of discharge, charge rate, temperature, cycle frequency, and the specific chemistry of the cells — that interact in ways that are difficult to predict from simple monitoring of current and voltage. illumion's platform addresses this by applying physics-based and data-driven models to the continuous stream of sensor data from deployed battery systems, providing operators with accurate state-of-health assessments and performance forecasts that go beyond conventional monitoring. This enables more intelligent charge-discharge scheduling, earlier identification of cells or modules that are degrading faster than expected, and more reliable residual value assessments that support secondary market transactions.

The Cambridge investor base — combining Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures (the university's technology transfer investment arm), and Foresight VCT — reflects illumion's roots in the Cambridge energy research ecosystem. The funding will be used to expand the platform's capabilities and grow the company's client base across energy storage project developers, operators, and asset owners.

Sources

• illumion — company website