Meet Storio, a French startup that makes smart energy storage for commercial and industrial customers. Founded in 2023, the startup recently closed a seed round of €5 million, or around $5.5 million at today's rates, and just announced its first client.

Storio believes solar panels have a bright future. On the other hand, the company would want each solar panel produced to also have a battery in it to work in conjunction with optimizing production. In terms of target market, other businesses who may not feel that they have time or experience to join all these technical pieces together are the target here.

Instead of making or selling the standalone battery, a far more interesting distribution strategy for Storio is to do a technical and revenue simulation and then partner with its battery suppliers as well as civil engineering companies in order to convert one project into an energy storage installation.

Over the past few years, many commercial and industrial sectors have erect large-scale solar panel installations to reduce their electricity bill. Storio aims to exploit that precedence with an energy storage solution that can complement these existing installations — and help its customers better use up the solar energy, thanks to Storio's battery management software.

Once live, the remote control by Storio optimized the consumption of batteries, as well as the storage and discharge of energy in general.

Batteries are normally charged during the day, and the release of energy is then discharged in the morning and evening-but smarter stuff like this is allowed by the software of Storio.

That's where you start. Then you have solar panels. Solar panels produce a lot of energy in the middle of the day. Let's store it so you can use it yourself and save money," said co-founder and CEO Jean-Yves Stephan to TechCrunch.

For example, Storio can top up the batteries with power from the grid at night during off-peak hours, so the client will need much less electricity during peak periods. As many industrial companies have experienced expensive energy contracts for past years, the fact of cooperation with Storio decreases all risks connected with fluctuations in the energy market.

"The core of our value proposition is to optimize energy flows, either to create savings on our customer's bill, or to generate additional income from the power grid, Stephan said.".

The company is also certified by Enedis and RTE in France to contribute to the stabilization of the grid. That means Storio can choose to release energy from its fleet of batteries it manages into the grid for a short period when there is a demand peak, enabling it to generate revenue as a result of this contribution to the grid.

In this scenario, even the profit motive may be stronger for a Storio customer from releasing energy from the batteries themselves instead of using it to burn the fuel that generates the energy in their core business purpose.

There are pretty technical stabilizing mechanisms involved, for instance stabilizing the network frequency. The grid frequency has to be 50Hz [in Europe]. As it rises a little above or falls a little below, the battery reacts. It can also be used to buy and sell energy, like an 'energy trader,' Stephan said.

The energy trading part is a key aspect of the company's proposition, and it could significantly cut down the amortization period of a Storio installation.

The company estimates that a customer can get a return on investment after five or six years — but batteries can last for up to 15 years (when they end up with roughly 70% of their initial capacity).

Each industrial partner that hosts a battery management installation from Storio will also have a profit-sharing agreement. "It's very important to align interests because, as you say, we have to make some trade-offs. If we were saying 'savings are for you, network revenues are for Storio,' that would be unfair," Stephan said.

Lowercarbon Capital, a leading investor in clean technologies and carbon savings, is co-leading Storio's round of seed funding along with Bpifrance Large Venture that invests its own equity in the startup. Kima Ventures, several business angels among them Bump's founding members, Electra's founding member, Elum Energy's and Greenly's and Enspired's founding members.

Other companies that have been developing battery management on-site include GridBeyond in the UK, Stabl in Germany, and also in the United States Stem. Since regulations differ from region to region, Storio seems to be in good stead to take on France and possibly other European countries in the near future.