Australian home battery upstart banks “strategic investment” towards manufacturing plans

Perth-based energy storage and off-grid energy system specialist Magellan Power has secured its first private equity investor, with Viburnum Funds taking a minority stake in the company that last year made its debut in the booming Australian home battery market.

The “strategic investment” was announced earlier this week, and has been reported in WA media at $15 million – the same amount Magellan last year said it was seeking to fund “a significant expansion” of its operations, including the manufacture of battery systems at its Bibra Lake facility.

Renew Economy has sought confirmation of the size of the investment.

Magellan, which was founded by Masoud Abshar in 1991, originally specialised in the design and supply of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems designed “to suit harsh Australian operating conditions.”

The company has since broadened its focus to take in energy storage, including the local manufacture and recycling of mostly commercial, industrial and community-scale, or stand-alone, battery energy storage systems.

The May launch of its first residential energy storage offering, Karri, was neatly timed to ride the wave of the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries scheme, which launched last July 01.

Magellan is currently in the process of gearing up to manufacture the Karri battery, locally, and also aims to start production of community batteries, modular energy storage systems that range between 100 kW to 1 MW.

The company is also in the process of establishing a new 15,000-square-metre headquarters at Trident Estate, Hope Valley, in Perth, which began construction last year.

“This expansion is about Karri, it’s about community batteries and it’s about our 4R program [battery repair, refurbishment, repurposing, and recycling,” Abshar told Renew Economy in an interview about the company’s fundraising plans, last July.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Magellan and Virburnum said the investment would accelerate Magellan’s ability to scale Australian-made batteries and industrial uninterruptible power systems.

“This investment marks an exciting new chapter in our journey,” said Abshar.

“With Viburnum’s support and the guidance from PKF Perth, we are exceptionally well positioned to scale our manufacturing footprint, advance our technology pipeline, and meet the rapidly rising demand for Australian‑made power electronics.”

In a LinkedIn post, Viburnum Funds said this was its first investment from its latest Fund, Viburnum Private III – a fund backed by US and Australian institutional and wholesale investors that is currently open for subscriptions.

Magellan is also a contender for a share in the $500 million on offer through the federal government’s Battery Breakthrough Initiative, which was officially launched for applications in August of last year.

The company’s 4R project has four post doctorates working on the “very complex” stream of battery repurposing, which to start with will focus on used EV batteries.

“It’s very complex. [You have to] find out exactly what the state of charge and the state of safety of the [used] EV batteries are… so that we can decide what application it would go to, for a second life,” Abshar told Renew Economy last year.

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