Essinc was founded by Craig Evans in 2011.

Who are Essinc's investors?

Essinc's investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, Cycle Capital.

Essinc

Founded 2011 · 308 employees on LinkedIn · 3 known investors

Find your way into Essinc

205 people in our graph share verified history with the Essinc team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Sahir Azamunlockedknows Craig Evans · together at RPI Lally School of Management (overlapped)

×8knows the team · via Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business

knows the team · via Essinc

knows the team · via RPI Lally School of Management

knows the team · via Clarkson University

ESS Tech, Inc. builds iron flow battery systems for long-duration energy storage, offering up to 22 hours of storage to provide baseload power for grids, AI data centers, and communities. Its American-made systems are designed for a 25-year life with no capacity degradation.

Cleantech Energy Hardware

Founders & leadership

Essinc was founded in 2011 by Craig Evans.

Craig Evans inPresident & 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.

Investors · 3

Breakthrough Energy VenturesBoston · $500K – $50M

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

Cycle CapitalreportedMontreal

Founder mafia

2 people who came through Essinc 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 Essinc do?: ESS Tech, Inc. builds iron flow battery systems for long-duration energy storage, offering up to 22 hours of storage to provide baseload power for grids, AI data centers, and communities. Its American-made systems are designed for a 25-year life with no capacity degradation.
Who founded Essinc?: Essinc was founded by Craig Evans in 2011.
Who are Essinc's investors?: Essinc's investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, Cycle Capital.