UK firm Barocal has raised $10 million to help commercialize its solid-state cooling system, which it believes could provide a more efficient alternative to air cooling in data centers.

The Cambridge-based company has raised the cash from backers including World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, IP Group, and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, the VC arm of Cambridge University’s technology transfer office, Cambridge Enterprise.

It will use the proceeds of the seed round to scale its engineering team and accelerate development of its system ahead of commercial deployment.

The company was founded in 2019 by Professor Xavier Moya, an expert on caloric materials and systems. Caloric materials can release or absorb heat when exposed to an external force, such as pressure or an electronic or magnetic field. Because of this, they have been touted as a more sustainable alternative to air conditioning, but limiting factors such as cost, degradation, and fatigue have limited their deployment.

Professor Moya discovered what the company claims is a way to extract “unprecedented performance” in barocaloric materials – those that respond to pressure to generate temperature changes. Based on his research, Barocal has developed a heating and cooling platform and is targeting the data center sector.

It is “designed to be more efficient and less expensive than traditional vapour-compression systems that rely on climate-damaging gas refrigerants to power today’s air conditioning units,” the company said.

Professor Moya 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 commercialize and scale our technology before the planet runs out of time.”

According to Barocal, its offering for data centers can be integrated with existing thermal management systems, and operates efficiently in all ambient conditions, including high temperatures.

Mark Windeknecht, principal at World Fund, said: “Barocal has achieved what scientists have struggled to do for decades – a materials breakthrough delivering solid-state materials that finally enable new cooling and heating platform technology that competes with vapour-based incumbents. We are extremely proud to be supporting this world-leading scientific team as they commercialize.”