Barocal raises $10 million Seed funding for solid-state cooling and heating platform targeting data center and commercial refrigeration applications
Type: Financing · Technology: Data Center · Country: United Kingdom · Value: $10M · Announced: 2026-05-05
Materials science startup Barocal secured $10 million in a Seed funding round to advance its solid-state cooling and heating platform technology, which replaces conventional vapour-compression systems. The company, founded in 2019 as a Cambridge University spin-out by Prof. Xavier Moya, targets high-growth applications including data center cooling and commercial refrigeration within the $450 billion global HVAC market. The funding round attracted commitments from World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, and IP Group. Barocal's patented technology aims to achieve cost parity with incumbent systems while significantly reducing emissions, addressing the 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to heating and cooling. Prof. Xavier Moya emphasized the technology's potential to help meet the 1.5-degree climate target by cutting emissions by around half. Mark Windeknecht, Principal at World Fund, highlighted Barocal's breakthrough in delivering solid-state materials that compete with vapour-based systems.
Counterparties
- Breakthrough Energy Discovery (Investor)
- Cambridge Enterprise Ventures (Investor)
- Barocal (Developer)
- World Fund (Investor)
- IP Group (Investor)