Motor Pioneer C-Motive Technologies Closes Financing Round
Prime Impact Fund, Clean Energy Trust, and Other Investors Back Groundbreaking Motor Technology
Apr 03, 2019, 08:37 ET
MADISON, Wis., April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- C-Motive Technologies (c-motive.com), creator of the world's first commercially viable electrostatic motor, announces the successful closing of a $2 million financing round led by Prime Impact Fund of Boston with other investors including Clean Energy Trust of Chicago. The financing will enable C-Motive to launch its first product for initial customers.
C-Motive's product is a complete reinvention of the electric motor. For 130 years, electric motors and generators have relied on the same design and materials: steel, copper coils, and rare earth permanent magnets. Those materials determine a motor's size, weight and cost, which limits performance in applications ranging from automotive and power generation to robotics and propulsion. Most motors today are efficient only at very high speeds and require extensive gearing for use at low speeds. This adds complexity, cost, weight, and efficiency loss.
"In terms of a new motor that moves the needle on performance, there really have been no options," said Justin Reed, CEO and cofounder of C-Motive. "The electric motor as we know it today cannot achieve more than incremental advances. That's what pushed us to think 'what if there was another way?' It turns out there is. We just had to apply modern methods and materials to a concept conceived by Benjamin Franklin."
Instead of magnetism, C-Motive uses "electrostatics." This eliminates steel, copper coils and rare earth magnets and replaces them with lightweight metals, plastics and dielectric materials. This combination can deliver over twice the power at half the weight, with up to 99% efficiency – especially at very low speeds. C-Motive's product stands to do away with the expensive maintenance and bulk of gearing while also delivering superior efficiency and performance.
"The lightweight, high-torque motor will be essential to enabling the electrification of transportation on land, sea, and in the air," said Ben Gaddy, Director of Investments and CTO at Clean Energy Trust.
The technology can also be used as a generator. "C-Motive's technology can unleash advances in sectors that are currently held back by standard motors and generators, which haven't changed substantively in a century. The company could unlock growth in offshore wind generation and wave energy, in addition to a multitude of other applications," said Johanna Wolfson, Principal of Prime Impact Fund, who joined C-Motive's board in connection with the financing. "C-Motive has the most creative answer we've seen to solve this problem."
About C-Motive Technologies: C-Motive Technologies is a high-tech electric motor company based in Madison, Wisconsin that is unleashing the potential of electrostatic motors, generators and actuators.
Media Contact:
Justin Reed
(608) 223-0880
[email protected]
SOURCE C-Motive Technologies