Oxfordshire’s Ionech Secures €2.3M Seed Funding

Alongside a €807k (£700k) Innovate UK grant, the funding will help advance its Air Voltaic Cell technology from lab-scale to real-world pilots over the next 24 months and support joint development agreements with early-adopting partners.

Thomas Kirk, co-founder of Ionech, shares with EU-Startups: “Energy sits at the foundation of the technology stack. At Ionech we’re building a platform energy technology that will fundamentally change the distribution and consumption of electricity in energy intensive industries. We’re looking forward to our partnership with Elbow Beach as we scale our energy hardware technology to enhance grid resilience, reduce transmission cost and deliver tangible cost savings for the end-user.”

In 2025, Ionech’s Seed round reflects Europe’s growing investment in clean-energy and ClimateTech, spanning electrification, energy efficiency and grid resilience.

Recent deals include Sweden’s Aira (€150M) for residential heating, France’s Spark Cleantech (€30M) for industrial energy, Spain’s Clevergy (€3.2M), the Netherlands’ Zympler (€1.5M), and Italy’s Renewcast (€1M).

Read Also - SaleCycle Acquires Paris-based Mar­ket­ing Tech Firm BEYABLE

In addition to individual company rounds, specialist funds are also fueling the sector such as Future Energy Ventures, which closed a €205 million second fund to support energy-tech startups across Europe. Collectively, these deals represent over €400 million flowing into clean-energy innovation, situating Ionech’s Seed round within a wider trend of sustained investment.

Jonathan Pollock, CEO of Elbow Beach, said: “Ionech represents the kind of bold innovation we aim to support at Elbow Beach. Energy demand is growing, driven by among other things, cooling systems and AI. Ionech is developing ways to harness clean energy from ambient air. Their Air Voltaic Cell technology has the potential to reduce reliance on the grid, lower energy consumption and deliver tangible benefits across the real economy. We are excited to partner with Ionech as they advance their technology to market.”

Founded in 2016 at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Ionech is a clean-energy company harnessing ambient air to generate electricity through its Air Voltaic Cell. Designed for high-demand and grid-scale applications the technology delivers low-maintenance, sustainable power while reducing energy costs and carbon emissions.

The Air Voltaic Cell works by using high-voltage pulses and field electron emission to produce superoxide ions, converting the thermal and chemical potential of ambient air into usable electrical energy.

Nathan Owen, co-founder and Managing Director of Ionech says: “We are partnering with Elbow Beach to advance the development of our Air Voltaic Cell technology. Their investment enables the transition from lab-scale development to real-world pilots, including initial work with CCEP’s cooler fleet. It also accelerates our route to market and deployment across energy-intensive applications, such as HVAC and data centres, with the potential to reduce energy consumption, emissions, and reliance on the grid at scale.”​

Ionech plans to deploy its Air Voltaic Cell technology first in high-energy-demand applications like commercial refrigeration, air conditioning, and ventilation sectors responsible for over a quarter of global energy use before scaling to the grid. Early adoption could save megatons of CO₂ and cut energy costs.

Partners include Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), an early investor, where the technology could notably reduce the carbon footprint of beverage coolers. Ionech aims to demonstrate its first commercial-ready system by 2027.

Joe Franses, VP Sustainability at CCEP, adds: “We continue to be excited about the potential of the technology that Ionech is developing, and how it could support CCEP in accelerating towards our sustainability goals. This latest investment brings us closer to that potential.”