DBJ to invest in Form Energy, Inc.

Development Bank of Japan Inc. has made an investment in Form Energy, Inc. (headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA).
Form is a U.S. startup developing and manufacturing iron-air batteries, co-founded in 2017 by energy storage veterans, including Mateo Jaramillo (CEO), who previously led the establishment and subsequent expansion of the stationary energy storage business at Tesla, Inc. Form has successfully elevated iron-air battery technology, which has been researched globally for many years, to a commercial level for the first time in the world.
In the U.S., (1) the expansion of renewable energy sources, (2) the rapid increase in power demand from AI and data centers, and (3) the retirement of power sources such as coal and oil-fired power plants have made it urgent to enhance the power supply-demand adjustment capabilities. Additionally, there is an increasing need to protect the power system from the growing number of natural disasters. As a result, energy storage batteries are gaining attention as one of the solutions to these challenges.
Energy storage batteries can be broadly categorized into short-duration energy storage (SDES), which handles short-term, intraday supply-demand adjustments, and long-duration energy storage (LDES), which can manage supply-demand adjustments over the course of a day or even across multiple days. Form’s iron-air batteries, which have a discharge duration of 100 hours, fall into the LDES category. These batteries are receiving significant interest from major U.S. utility companies for their potential to stabilize the power grid by enabling supply-demand balance adjustments over extended periods.
DBJ will support our clients’ efforts to achieve carbon neutrality in accordance with our corporate philosophy, “Design the future with financial expertise: Continue to expand financial frontiers; Provide the best solutions for customers and society; Pursue sustainable development for Japan and the world.”