Barocal has raised a $10 million (€8.6 million) seed round to accelerate development of its refrigerant-gas-free cooling and heating technology. The Cambridge University spin-out will use the funding to expand its engineering team ahead of commercial deployment.
The company is developing a solid-state platform based on barocaloric materials, which use pressure-driven phase transitions to generate large temperature changes. Barocal says the technology is designed to replace traditional vapour-compression systems at cost parity while reducing emissions.
Barocal will initially target data centre cooling and commercial refrigeration. The company says these applications are part of a global HVAC market valued at about $450 billion and expected to reach about $577 billion by 2033.
The round included World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and IP Group. Barocal said the funding will support senior technical and commercial hires and accelerate system development.
Professor Xavier Moya, Founder of Barocal, said: “Heating and cooling have always been the elephant in the room when it comes to emissions, and ours is a set of materials that could change history. We are building something truly revolutionary. The world can only hit a 1.5 degree target if we cut emissions by around half – solving heating and cooling emissions would achieve that goal. I am thrilled to be partnering with investors who will support us to commercialise and scale our technology before the planet runs out of time.”
