• Energy Vault, a Swiss gravity and kinetic energy-based long-duration energy storage company, has received a strategic investment of USD 50 million from Korea Zinc, a South Korean metal smelting company. 

• The investment will enable Korea Zinc to utilize Energy Vault’s technology at Sun Metals (Korea Zinc’s zinc refinery in Queensland) to produce carbon-negative zinc. 

• Energy Vault expects to deploy an energy storage system at Sun Metals by mid-2022 while scaling up its operations across Australia. 

• The investment raises Energy Vault’s private investment in public equity (PIPE) funding by 50% to USD 150 million and will be utilized to fund the company’s growth.  

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Having made its first US sale in October 2021, Energy Vault plans for a global scale-up across the Middle East, Europe, and Australia in 2022. The collaboration with Korea Zinc could be a part of these commercialization plans. Energy Vault has also entered into an MoU with BHP to expand in Australia. The company has an ongoing SPAC deal to list on the NYSE in the first quarter of 2022.</ul>