Sapphire Technologies Secures $18 Million Series C Round to Accelerate Growth

Sapphire Technologies, a Cypress-based manufacturer of power generation equipment, closed an $18-million Series C round from investors that included Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and existing investors Equinor Ventures, Cooper and Company, and Energy Capital Ventures. The capital will be used to increase capacity at its new Cypress manufacturing facility, grow the product base in key markets such as Japan, and expand into new applications.

“Japan is one of the most important global markets for Sapphire,” said Freddie Sarhan, chief executive of Sapphire Technologies, in a statement. “This partnership will accelerate the deployment of waste pressure power generation equipment across natural gas infrastructure, supporting the world’s surging energy demand.”

The company’s turboexpanders convert the energy wasted by pressure reduction processes into clean electric power. Assets in the energy sector often contain ready-to-develop pressure resources, like natural gas wells that must be choked prior to processing and transmission pipelines that must be let down before interconnecting with local distribution pipelines. Turboexpanders can be introduced into these processes to generate carbon-free electricity.

“Technologies such as FreeSpin have the potential to play a meaningful role in the energy transition by converting existing pressure into electricity without additional fuel or direct emissions,” said Ricky Sakai, senior vice president of investment & business development at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, in a statement.

Information for this article was sourced from Sapphire Technologies.