Gridtential Energy, Inc., a developer of low-cost, high-performance energy storage technology, today announced that The Roda Group has led the company's seed round of financing.

Founded in 2010, Gridtential Energy has been funded in part by an award from the California Energy Commission's Energy Innovations Small Grant Program. The company has developed and tested internal prototypes of an advanced battery design that has significant cost and performance advantages over current products. The seed funding will be used to develop full-scale demonstration units for field tests within the next year.

"We are very pleased to have The Roda Group as our first institutional investor," said Christiaan Beekhuis, President and CEO of Gridtential Energy. "The Roda team brings years of valuable operational experience and has a great track record of helping early-stage technology companies commercialize their products."

Gridtential will initially be targeting existing battery applications that today represent over $8B in annual sales. As the technology matures, the company believes its products will be well positioned for the emerging smart-grid energy storage market.

Daniel Miller, Managing Director and Marty Reed, Principal of The Roda Group, will join Gridtential's Board of Directors. "We invest in great teams with innovative ideas that, if successful, will have a significant impact in mitigating the negative consequences of climate change," said Mr. Reed.

About Gridtential Energy: Gridtential Energy is developing a low-cost, scalable battery architecture that significantly improves energy density, cycling performance and battery life. Gridtential has relationships with key suppliers to accelerate development of highly repeatable, high-volume battery production capabilities. Gridtential Energy is located near downtown San Jose at the San Jose BioCube Innovation Center. To learn more, visit http://www.gridtential.com/

About The Roda Group: The Roda Group provides entrepreneurs the resources, environment and guidance to launch and grow their high technology businesses. The Roda Group is the largest investor in the renewable oils company Solazyme and is a venture capital group focusing on large-scale and lucrative business opportunities that address the issues associated with the consequences of climate change, increasing demand for low-carbon energy, and stress on the Earth's natural resources. To learn more, visit http://www.rodagroup.com/