Podcast
“The Zero Hour”
“We have solved a 100-year-old problem” – as the Tesvolt founders are conquering the world with battery storage systems
Tesvolt has built the first Gigafactory for battery storage in Europe
© Waltraud Grubitzsch // Picture Alliance
A new hidden champion is growing up in Lutherstadt Wittenberg: Tesvolt. The founders Daniel Hannemann and Simon Schandert have developed highly efficient battery storage systems that are used in industrial plants, business parks or on ships.
You have implemented over 3000 projects around the world, in Chile, Rwanda, in a Coca-Cola plant in Brazil, in Norway, but also on the excursion boats on the Spree: Tesvolt’s battery storage systems are conquering the world. Because they solve a problem of the energy transition: The renewable energy has to be stored, and the wardrobe-sized batteries from Tesvolt store it better and longer. “We have gigantic growth ahead of us,” said the founders Daniel Hannemann and Simon Schandert in the podcast “The Zero Hour”. “We are at the beginning of a boom, similar to electromobility.”
“In Germany alone there is a potential of two million systems in the commercial and industrial sector, as far as storage is concerned,” said the founders who started Tesvolt in their hometown of Wittenberg. “That doesn’t even include the entire charging infrastructure.” But, they added, “We won’t be able to do it alone, making and delivering so much memory.”
Money from the royal family
Tesvolt was founded in 2014, Daniel Hannemann and Simon Schandert previously worked in the solar industry. When the German market collapsed, Schandert wanted to solve an old problem: Batteries lose power too quickly when they are interconnected as a system. Using a new technology, he developed a system with which the cells communicate and exchange their energy – which greatly increases efficiency.
Hannemann, whom Schandert knew from school, joined them later, and Tesvolt was born. Over a hundred people now work for the startup. According to the company, incoming orders in the current financial year are just under 100 million euros. In 2020 Tesvolt opened a factory for ten million euros, the first “Gigafactory in Europe”.
The founders have just raised fresh money, 40 million euros, to finance further expansion. The current financing round was led by an investment company belonging to the Princely Liechtenstein family. Tesvolt plans to start in North America next year.
Listen in the new episode of “The Zero Hour”:
- Why the founders chose the Wittenberg location
- How Tesvolt is run with practically no hierarchies
- How it came about that the Princely Family Liechtenstein invested
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