Cambridge Spin-out Barocal Raises €8.5M Seed Funding For Refrigerant-Free Cooling Rechnology

The round includes investors such as World Fund, Breakthrough Energy, Cambridge Enterprise, and IP Group.

The funding will support team expansion, system development, and preparations for commercial deployment.

Founded in 2019, Barocal is developing next-generation solid-state heating and cooling systems that replace conventional refrigerant gases with advanced organic barocaloric materials.

These materials heat and cool when pressure is applied, offering a route to eliminate high-global-warming refrigerants while improving overall energy efficiency.

Many caloric materials have historically been constrained by cost, degradation, or mechanical fatigue. However, Prof. Moya identified a way to achieve exceptional performance in barocaloric systems, which led to the company’s name and foundational breakthrough.

Barocaloric materials operate through pressure-induced phase transitions that produce significant temperature changes. Building on this discovery, the team developed and patented a heating and cooling platform designed to outperform traditional vapour-compression systems, which depend on climate-harming refrigerant gases used in most modern air conditioning technologies.

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The company’s initial focus is on rapidly expanding sectors such as data centre cooling and commercial refrigeration. These markets sit within the global HVAC industry valued at approximately €384 billion ($450 billion) and projected to grow to around €492 billion ($577 billion) by 2033.

At scale Barocal expects its technology to substantially cut emissions from the heating and cooling sector by improving efficiency and removing the need for refrigerant gases. This sector accounts for roughly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions significantly more than aviation. Cooling alone generated over 4 gigatonnes of CO₂e in 2022, with global demand expected to triple by 2050.

Prof. Xavier Moya, Founder of Barocal, says: “Heating and cooling have always been the elephant in the room when it comes to emissions, and ours is a set of materials that could change history. We are building something truly revolutionary. The world can only hit a 1.5 degree target if we cut emissions by around half – solving heating and cooling emissions would achieve that goal. I am thrilled to be partnering with investors who will support us to commercialise and scale our technology before the planet runs out of time.”

About Barocal

Barocal is a University of Cambridge spin-out developing next-generation solid state heating and cooling technologies. The company is creating breakthrough systems based on barocaloric materials aiming to replace traditional refrigerant-based cooling with more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly solutions for the future of global temperature control.