Barcelona’s Tether raises €1.3M post-Spain blackout to tackle EU’s €135B/year grid instability risk

Barcelona-based Tether, a clean energy startup, has secured $1.5M (nearly €1.3M) in pre-seed funding to accelerate its AI-coordinated electric vehicle grid integration technology.

Draper B1 and K Fund led the round. Draper B1 forms the Southern European arm of the Draper Venture Network, a global alliance of 25 independent VC firms with 600+ portfolio investments.

The round also attracted participation from Southern European venture funds, including Enzo Ventures, Inclimo Climate Tech Fund, Zero4Climate, and COREangels Climate, many of which are focused on impact investments.

Addressing Europe’s grid stability challenge

Founded by Luis Medina Rivas in 2023 at Norrsken Barcelona, Tether has developed solutions to transform private electric vehicles into distributed battery assets for grid stability.

Tether’s technology learns behaviour patterns of millions of private electric vehicles to coordinate their charging schedules, effectively creating a distributed battery network for grid reinforcement.

The system can reduce CO2 output up to 7,300 tonnes per MW over a vehicle’s lifetime whilst generating additional revenue streams for OEMs and charge point operators through flexibility bidding on balancing markets.

Without urgent action, grid instability could cost EU economies up to €135B annually by 2050, driven by rising energy costs and emergency energy measures.

Capital utilisation

The funding will support Tether’s team expansion and product launches across Nordic markets, Germany, and Belgium.

The company plans to scale its engineering and commercial teams while deepening integrations with automakers and grid operators to accelerate deployment of its grid-scale battery coordination system.

Tether has secured running pilots with major car manufacturers and charge point operators, including partnerships with automakers such as Audi and Zeekr.

Founder Luis Medina Rivas says, “The recent blackout in Spain put front and centre the growing need for flexibility in Europe. Without urgent action, grid instability could cost EU economies up to €135B annually by 2050 – driven by rising energy costs, disrupted industry, and emergency energy measures.”

“This funding round helps us seize the momentum, so we can expand our team and launch our product across the Nordic markets. This will help us accelerate the green energy transition without threatening the reliability of the grid.”

From Northvolt engineer to distributed energy pioneer

Founder and CEO Luis Medina Rivas brings extensive experience from Florida Power & Light, GE Power, GE Solar, and Northvolt, with recognition as a Future Energy Leader of the World Energy Council and a Nova111 in Spain for Energy & Engineering. His background in Electrical and Renewable Energy Engineering underpins Tether’s technical approach.

The development team comprises engineers, mathematicians, and data scientists with backgrounds from Amazon and EIT InnoEnergy.

Raquel Bernal, Partner at Draper B1, says, “We are thrilled to join Tether in its mission to facilitate the energy transition by bridging electric vehicles and the energy market. From the beginning, we were impressed with the synergies between Luis and the team, their international vision, and their ability to open new paths in transforming markets.”