Rebaba Raises $4.6 Million to Expand Second‑life Battery Storage in Europe
September 9, 2026 — Rebaba, a Swedish energy‑tech firm, closed an oversubscribed $4.6 million seed round led by Sistafund to scale its second‑life EV battery storage solutions across Europe. The financing, announced, totals $4.6 million and was backed by Sistafund, Climate Ventures, and the Nordic Climate Fund. The capital will fund the rollout of circular battery energy storage systems, accelerate hiring, and expand the company’s European hub network. The round is classified as seed funding for energy storage startups and underscores growing investor confidence in EV battery reuse in Europe.
How Does Rebaba’s second‑life Battery Technology Work?
Rebaba extracts usable modules from retired electric vehicle packs. These modules are refurbished and integrated into a patent-pending platform. This platform monitors cell health in real time. The process generates second-life EV battery storage. It can provide up to 10 years of additional service. This innovative approach transforms waste into a circular battery energy storage asset. The technology addresses how second-life battery storage works. It offers modular, software-controlled arrays that can be deployed instantly for grid services.
Product Lineup
The company offers two flagship solutions. The Rebaba Companion 40 kWh functions as a compact cabinet for residential and small-commercial sites, allowing users to shift loads and shave peaks. The Rebaba Containerised system packs up to 500 kWh into a shipping container, targeting industrial users, micro‑grids, and utilities for grid balancing and renewable integration.
Market Rollout & Partnerships
Rebaba has signed commercial agreements with Swedish utility Vattenfall and Danish distributor Energinet to pilot its systems in 2025. A distribution network now spans Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France, with plans to add CircularHubs in the Netherlands and Belgium. The expansion aligns with upcoming European battery recycling funding programs that reward circular solutions.
Environmental Impact & Capacity Goals
The firm aims to produce 40 MWh of second-life storage annually. This output could prevent approximately 4,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year. Such capacity supports the EU’s climate targets. It also illustrates how circular battery energy storage can reduce dependence on new raw materials.
Founder, CTO, and Investor Quotes
Paula Runsten, Rebaba Co-Founder & CEO, comments: “Demand for energy storage is accelerating globally, driven by AI, electrification, and the transition to renewables. Conventional thinking is that we must produce new batteries for every energy storage system being deployed, but this simply isn’t true. Electric vehicle batteries are retired with 70-80% of their useful life remaining, and by 2028, returning EV batteries are projected to offer more usable capacity annually than the entire global demand for stationary battery storage. The batteries already exist. Our job is to make reuse scalable.”
“Europe has spent years trying to catch up in battery manufacturing. Second-life gives us a way to actually compete, profitably.”
Felix Kruse, Rebaba Co-Founder & CTO, comments: “The Rebaba platform is built to work with virtually any electric vehicle battery. By keeping the complexity within our core technology, we can assemble the rest of the Rebaba system from standard, locally available components. In practice, this means that essentially any technician, anywhere in the world, can build a Rebaba system.”
“That flexibility is what has opened the door to so many of our partnerships, both in how we source batteries and how we reach new markets. It allows us to offer clean, European-engineered, high-performance energy storage systems anywhere in the world, at a price point that competes with the cheapest alternatives. That combination of performance without the premium is what makes Rebaba systems affordable and scalable.”
Marie Geneste, Partner at Sistafund, comments: “Europe’s energy transition depends on scaling storage fast, without creating new dependencies on scarce raw materials or costly imports. Rebaba turns retired EV batteries into high-performance storage systems that can be built locally and compete on price. That is what convinced us to lead this round: circularity without compromise, and a team with the potential to build a European leader in energy storage.”
Source: Rebaba
Timeline & Next Steps
Rebaba will hire 30 engineers and sales staff over the next six months, launch the next generation Companion 60 kWh in Q4 2024, and commission two new CircularHubs by mid‑2025. Milestones include delivering 10 MW of installed capacity across the continent by 2026.
Related Developments & What’s Next
The European Union’s new battery-recycling regulation will take effect in 2027. This regulation will tighten collection targets. It will also increase demand for second-life solutions. Competitors such as VESI and Nissan’s Energy Store are pursuing circular models. This indicates a promising market for additional funding rounds and strategic partnerships.
Rebaba raises $4.6 million seed round, positioning the company at the forefront of Europe’s transition to sustainable, cost‑effective energy storage.
I'm Amelia Bonner, an energy storage researcher and technical content writer focused on the technologies shaping the future of reliable, flexible, and sustainable energy systems. My work explores battery energy storage, grid-scale storage, renewable energy integration, battery technologies, and emerging energy storage solutions.
