
扎克·戴尔的目标是让Base家用储能电池系统走进全美每一个社区,并逐步扩展到欧洲乃至全球其他地区,足见这家企业的增长空间十分广阔。
作为科技巨头戴尔科技集团(Dell Technologies)创始人迈克尔·戴尔(Michael Dell)之子,扎克早已凭借自身实力闯出一番事业。本月下旬,他即将迎来30岁生日。就在几周前,他于2023年联合创办的Base Power刚完成10亿美元D轮融资。本轮融资后,Base Power的估值在不到一年的时间里从40亿美元飙升至130亿美元。
扎克·戴尔在接受《财富》杂志采访时表示:“我们的长期目标是让Base的产品走进美国各个社区。”他指出,美国住宅零售电力市场规模约2000亿美元。“市场空间巨大,我们也有全球化布局的战略野心。英国、德国、澳大利亚等市场均具备很高的开拓价值。”
短短三年,Base已将家庭储能电池系统安装速度从每天1套提升至每天100余套,累计服务客户超3万,用户规模仍在快速增长。今年早些时候,Base在奥斯汀启用了首座自有电池工厂Base Factory 1,规模更大的第二座工厂也已开工,预计2027年建成。
总部位于奥斯汀的Base从得克萨斯州起家,近期将业务拓展至伊利诺伊州。公司计划明年进入更多州,在放松管制州直接开展业务,或与垄断型公用事业公司合作。
Base采用一站式家庭能源服务模式:通过储能电池系统提供日常用电和备用电源,取代传统燃气发电机。传统备用电源系统购置成本动辄1.5万美元甚至更高,而Base提供电力服务,仅收取最高695美元的安装费,外加每月19美元的固定会员费,商业模式与开市客(Costco)类似。戴尔表示,用户总体电费通常更低,因为电池向电网反向送电可抵消部分用电成本。
当停电发生时,电池(或加价安装双电池系统)能维持供电,前提是停电时间不超过两三天。
“我们的商业模式十分独特,本质上是一家基础设施公司,”戴尔说道,“我们持有并运营电力批发市场的储能资产,相关运营收入构成主要盈利来源,并不依赖硬件销售获取一次性高额收益。”
D轮融资由四家机构联合领投:Ribbit Capital、Addition、Valor Equity Partners以及摩根大通战略投资集团。戴尔表示,Base的主要现有投资方也追加了投资,包括Thrive Capital、a16z、Lightspeed、Trust Ventures、CapitalG等。
戴尔称:“鉴于市场空间广阔及业务落地所需周期,所有投资方都秉持长线投资思维。尽管我们已取得显著进展,但就整体战略布局来看,我们仍处于起步阶段。”
戴尔的父亲、声名显赫的迈克尔·戴尔,虽未参与Base的运营,但会为儿子提供指导。戴尔家族的声望无疑为融资增添了不少助力。迈克尔·戴尔目前位列全球富豪榜第五位,排在埃隆·马斯克、杰夫·贝佐斯和谷歌两位联合创始人之后,身家略高于马克·扎克伯格。
深耕家用储能电池赛道
今年之前,Base只能采购第三方储能电池进行组装。如今Base正自研系统,专为家庭供电及向电网反向送电设计,有别于车库内主要用于电动汽车充电的储能系统。
“这款储能电池定位是电网资源,”戴尔说,“容量更大、安装更快、切换更稳、功率更强、续航更久。”
Base简化产品选型,只提供单电池、双电池两种家用储能系统。扎克表示:“多数用户其实更倾向于安装双电池系统,但部分住宅户外空间有限,难以容纳两套设备。”
新款电池可存储39.2千瓦时电量,显著高于多数竞品。
在人工智能热潮推高用电需求、全美电网持续承压的背景下,戴尔认为,Base既能通过分布式储能增强当地电网的承载能力,也能在电网故障时保障家庭供电,让用户受益。
"我们在电价低谷时段为电池充电,在电价高峰时段按需放电。"他说。
为打入伊利诺伊州新市场,Base甚至向部分潜在客户推出95美元的特惠安装价(常规安装费为695美元),以加速市场渗透。
戴尔表示:"进入不同市场时,我们很可能会根据市场信号调整定价策略试水。"(财富中文网)
译者:中慧言-王芳
扎克·戴尔的目标是让Base家用储能电池系统走进全美每一个社区,并逐步扩展到欧洲乃至全球其他地区,足见这家企业的增长空间十分广阔。
作为科技巨头戴尔科技集团(Dell Technologies)创始人迈克尔·戴尔(Michael Dell)之子,扎克早已凭借自身实力闯出一番事业。本月下旬,他即将迎来30岁生日。就在几周前,他于2023年联合创办的Base Power刚完成10亿美元D轮融资。本轮融资后,Base Power的估值在不到一年的时间里从40亿美元飙升至130亿美元。
扎克·戴尔在接受《财富》杂志采访时表示:“我们的长期目标是让Base的产品走进美国各个社区。”他指出,美国住宅零售电力市场规模约2000亿美元。“市场空间巨大,我们也有全球化布局的战略野心。英国、德国、澳大利亚等市场均具备很高的开拓价值。”
短短三年,Base已将家庭储能电池系统安装速度从每天1套提升至每天100余套,累计服务客户超3万,用户规模仍在快速增长。今年早些时候,Base在奥斯汀启用了首座自有电池工厂Base Factory 1,规模更大的第二座工厂也已开工,预计2027年建成。
总部位于奥斯汀的Base从得克萨斯州起家,近期将业务拓展至伊利诺伊州。公司计划明年进入更多州,在放松管制州直接开展业务,或与垄断型公用事业公司合作。
Base采用一站式家庭能源服务模式:通过储能电池系统提供日常用电和备用电源,取代传统燃气发电机。传统备用电源系统购置成本动辄1.5万美元甚至更高,而Base提供电力服务,仅收取最高695美元的安装费,外加每月19美元的固定会员费,商业模式与开市客(Costco)类似。戴尔表示,用户总体电费通常更低,因为电池向电网反向送电可抵消部分用电成本。
当停电发生时,电池(或加价安装双电池系统)能维持供电,前提是停电时间不超过两三天。
“我们的商业模式十分独特,本质上是一家基础设施公司,”戴尔说道,“我们持有并运营电力批发市场的储能资产,相关运营收入构成主要盈利来源,并不依赖硬件销售获取一次性高额收益。”
D轮融资由四家机构联合领投:Ribbit Capital、Addition、Valor Equity Partners以及摩根大通战略投资集团。戴尔表示,Base的主要现有投资方也追加了投资,包括Thrive Capital、a16z、Lightspeed、Trust Ventures、CapitalG等。
戴尔称:“鉴于市场空间广阔及业务落地所需周期,所有投资方都秉持长线投资思维。尽管我们已取得显著进展,但就整体战略布局来看,我们仍处于起步阶段。”
戴尔的父亲、声名显赫的迈克尔·戴尔,虽未参与Base的运营,但会为儿子提供指导。戴尔家族的声望无疑为融资增添了不少助力。迈克尔·戴尔目前位列全球富豪榜第五位,排在埃隆·马斯克、杰夫·贝佐斯和谷歌两位联合创始人之后,身家略高于马克·扎克伯格。
深耕家用储能电池赛道
今年之前,Base只能采购第三方储能电池进行组装。如今Base正自研系统,专为家庭供电及向电网反向送电设计,有别于车库内主要用于电动汽车充电的储能系统。
“这款储能电池定位是电网资源,”戴尔说,“容量更大、安装更快、切换更稳、功率更强、续航更久。”
Base简化产品选型,只提供单电池、双电池两种家用储能系统。扎克表示:“多数用户其实更倾向于安装双电池系统,但部分住宅户外空间有限,难以容纳两套设备。”
新款电池可存储39.2千瓦时电量,显著高于多数竞品。
在人工智能热潮推高用电需求、全美电网持续承压的背景下,戴尔认为,Base既能通过分布式储能增强当地电网的承载能力,也能在电网故障时保障家庭供电,让用户受益。
"我们在电价低谷时段为电池充电,在电价高峰时段按需放电。"他说。
为打入伊利诺伊州新市场,Base甚至向部分潜在客户推出95美元的特惠安装价(常规安装费为695美元),以加速市场渗透。
戴尔表示:"进入不同市场时,我们很可能会根据市场信号调整定价策略试水。"(财富中文网)
译者:中慧言-王芳
Zach Dell’s goal is to install a Base Power home battery system in every backyard in America—and in Europe and beyond for that matter—so it’s fair to say there’s a lot of room for growth.
The son of legendary Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, Zach has already made a name for himself in his own right. Just weeks before turning 30 later this month, his company Base, which Dell cofounded in 2023, has raised another $1 billion in a Series D funding round. The new round revealed that Base’s valuation has spiked to $13 billion from $4 billion in less than a year.
“We want to bring Base to every neighborhood in America over time,” Zach Dell told Fortune, noting that the residential retail electricity market in the U.S. is about $200 billion. “The scale of the opportunity is just massive, and of course, we do have global ambitions. We think markets like the U.K., Germany, Australia, and potentially others are attractive as well.”
The three-year-old company has gone from installing one battery system daily to over 100 per day—more than 30,000 total customers and rapidly rising. Earlier this year, Base opened its own battery manufacturing plant, Base Factory 1, in Austin, and a much larger second factory is under construction and slated for completion in 2027.
Austin-based Base started out in its home state of Texas and recently expanded to Illinois. The plan is to expand to additional states next year, either working in deregulated electricity markets or partnering with monopoly utilities.
Base’s business model is focused on offering a one-stop shop for the home: electricity and backup power courtesy of a battery storage system, not a standard gas generator. Instead of paying for a backup power system that can easily cost $15,000 or much more, Base offers electricity services and charges an installation fee—no more than $695—and a flat monthly membership fee of $19—call it the Costco model. Dell argues overall electricity charges are typically cheaper on average because of the money saved by the batteries giving power back to the grid.
And, when there’s a power outage, the battery (or the upcharge for a dual-battery system) keeps the lights on—so long as it isn’t a prolonged outage beyond two or three days.
“Our business model, which is very unique, is that we’re really an infrastructure company,” Dell said. “We own and operate the assets in the wholesale power markets. That’s really where we make our money, not by trying to sell the consumer something at a really high-margin upfront cost.”
The Series D round featured four co-leads in fundraising: Ribbit Capital, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, and JPMorgan Chase’s Strategic Investment Group. Dell said Base’s other major existing investors have re-invested, including Thrive Capital, a16z, Lightspeed, Trust Ventures, CapitalG, and more.
“All the investors are really long-term-oriented thinkers, given the size of the opportunity and the time it will take to kind of execute into it,” Dell said. “We’ve made a lot of progress, but in the grand scheme of things, we’re really just getting started.”
Dell’s famous father, Michael, is not involved in Base, but does serve as a mentor and certainly, the name recognition doesn’t hurt with fundraising. After all, Michael Dell is currently the fifth-wealthiest person in the world behind Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Google cofounders—and just ahead of Mark Zuckerberg.
Building home battery power
Prior to this year, Base was forced to rely on installing third-party batteries. Now, Base is building its own systems designed specifically for powering homes and providing electricity back to the grid—not like the systems primarily intended for charging electric vehicles in garages.
“This battery is designed to be a grid resource,” Dell said. “It’s bigger, it installs faster, it switches over cleaner, it’s more powerful, it has more duration.”
Base keeps its options simple: one- or two-battery home systems. “Most people actually want two, but not everyone has room on the side of their house for two,” he said.
The new battery can store 39.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity, significantly more than most of its competitors.
In this age of rapidly rising electricity demand from the AI boom—and strained electric grids nationwide—Dell argued that Base is benefiting customers both by strengthening the local power grids and by keeping the electricity going in the event of a grid failure.
“We’re charging the batteries when prices on the grid are low, and we’re discharging the batteries with demand when prices on the grid or high,” he said.
With the new entry into Illinois, Base is even offering some potential customers battery installation costs of $95—versus the standard $695—to gain greater market penetration.
“We’ll likely experiment with pricing based on market signals as we enter different markets,” Dell said.