Who founded ESS Inc.?

ESS Inc. was founded by Craig Evans in 2011.

Who are ESS Inc.'s investors?

ESS Inc.'s investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GC Ventures, Pangaea Ventures Us Inc., Sand Hill Angels, Cycle Capital.

ESS Inc.

Founded 2011 · 308 employees on LinkedIn · 5 known investors

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ESS builds non-lithium battery energy storage systems — including sodium-ion and iron flow batteries — for utilities, data centers, commercial and industrial facilities, and critical infrastructure. The company offers both long-duration storage hardware and an energy management platform for deploying and optimizing storage assets.

Cleantech Energy Hardware

Founders & leadership

ESS Inc. was founded in 2011 by Craig Evans.

Craig Evans President & Founder2021–2023Craig Evans co-founded and served as CEO of ESS Inc., a company developing iron flow battery systems for energy storage, and holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon with an engineering background in electrochemistry and energy storage technologies.

Craig Evans Julia SongFounder

Drew BuckleyChief Executive Officer

Kelly GoodmanChief Strategy Officer and General Counsel

Kate SuhadolnikChief Financial Officer

Brian LisieckiInterim Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer

Randall SeleskyChief Commercial Officer

Investors · 5

Breakthrough Energy Ventureslisted by Breakthrough Energy VenturesBoston · $500K – $50M

GC Ventureslisted by GC VenturesBangkok

How we know: GC Ventures's portfolio page · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Pangaea Ventures Us Inc.listed by Pangaea Ventures Us Inc.Vancouver · $500K – $1.5M

How we know: Pangaea Ventures Us Inc.'s portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

Sand Hill Angelslisted by Sand Hill AngelsMenlo Park · $50K – $2M

Cycle CapitalreportedMontreal

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Founder mafia

2 people who came through ESS Inc. went on to found or lead other companies.

Brian MayersInvestorFounded Nano Terra, Inc.David LazovskyChairmanFounded Celestial AI

Non-dilutive funding · 4 SBIR/STTR awards

Federal grants — no equity taken

Agency	Phase	Year	Amount
U.S. Air ForceAir Force	Phase I	2020	$50K
ARPA-E	Phase II	2015	$1.1M
ARPA-E	Phase II	2012	$1.5M
ARPA-E	Phase I	2012	$225K

Source: SBIR.gov award data (U.S. Small Business Administration). SBIR/STTR awards are competitive federal R&D grants and contracts — non-dilutive capital alongside any venture rounds above.

Frequently asked questions

What does ESS Inc. do?: ESS builds non-lithium battery energy storage systems — including sodium-ion and iron flow batteries — for utilities, data centers, commercial and industrial facilities, and critical infrastructure. The company offers both long-duration storage hardware and an energy management platform for deploying and optimizing storage assets.
Who founded ESS Inc.?: ESS Inc. was founded by Craig Evans in 2011.
Who are ESS Inc.'s investors?: ESS Inc.'s investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GC Ventures, Pangaea Ventures Us Inc., Sand Hill Angels, Cycle Capital.