Aquion in Chapter 11

Aquion Energy Inc, developer and manufacturer of Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHITM) batteries and energy storage systems, has filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code in the bankruptcy court of the District of Delaware. Immediately preceding the Chapter 11 filing, the company retrenched to a core R&D team by terminating approximately 80% of its personnel (several of whom have also entered into consulting agreements with the company to assist it in the sale of its assets), paused all factory operations, and stopped the marketing and selling of its products. These moves were made to provide the company with sufficient time to proceed with an orderly process to sell the assets of the company under the auspices of its Chapter 11 case.

Several potential strategic buyers have shown interest in Aquion and are conducting due diligence under non- disclosure agreements.

Scott Pearson, Aquion’s outgoing CEO, saidthatoveritssevenyearsofoperation, Aquion had created “a very promising energy storage platform” and “has proven that it can build a compelling product at scale in a highly- automated fashion and sell it globally to both integrators and end-customers”, along the way winning a number of awards, including MIT’s Top 100 Smartest Companies (2015, 2016), Global Cleantech - North American Company of the Year (2017), Platt’s Energy - Rising Star Award (2016), and the EES Award for Energy Storage (2015).

However, creating a new electrochemistry and an associated battery platform at commercial scale is of course no mean feat, and very capital intensive. “Despite our best efforts to fund the company and continue to fuel our growth, the company has been unable to raise the growth capital needed to continue operating as a going concern”, said Scott Pearson and Suzanne Roski of bankruptcy consultants Protiviti.