JGC Holdings Corporation (Masayuki Sato CEO) and JGC Corporation (Yasuharu Yamaguchi CEO) announced the decision to invest in IONATE Limited (IONATE, Headquarters: London, UK) through the corporate venture capital (CVC) fund "JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund". IONATE develops and licenses innovative transformers.

The global transformer market is forecast to grow from USD 45 billion in 2022 to USD 64.2 billion in 2030*, driven by increased investment in power transmission and distribution in the industrial sector and growing demand to replace ageing power transmission and distribution equipment. In addition, renewable energy generation, which is being increasingly deployed in many parts of the world, is subject to significant output fluctuations due to weather and seasonal factors, which is drawing attention to smart transformers to maintain the stability of power grids.

※Frost & Sullivan, 2022

IONATE is a UK start-up company offering an innovative intelligent transformer, the Hybrid Intelligent Transformer (HIT) and an AI-enabled smart grid management software platform. While conventional transformers specialise in voltage conversion functions, the HIT uses a uniquely designed iron core arrangement and device structure to enable real-time control of different voltages, frequencies and power factors without relying on external control devices. Compared with conventional transformers, this is expected to reduce power losses, lower operating costs of transmission and distribution systems and save space.

In addition to the renewable energy sector, the introduction of HIT is also effective in semiconductor manufacturing plants and data centres, where electricity is used on a large scale and countermeasures against instantaneous power failure are essential, as well as in the replacement of conventional transformer equipment.

HIT image

Through this investment, JGC will explore the application of HIT to the power system in energy and industrial infrastructure-related plants and facilities where smart transformers can be effectively installed, in addition to the construction of an efficient power supply network through smart grids and the introduction of renewable energy generation fields, and we will cooperate with IONATE, a fabless company, in the selection of contract manufacturers.

The JGC Group, through its CVC Fund, invests in domestic and overseas start-ups with innovative technologies and business models that contribute to building safe, secure and sustainable social systems, focusing on issues such as achieving carbon neutrality, building sustainable and resilient infrastructure, improving the quality of life in the age of the 100-year lifespan, and industrial smartification.

JGC Group will continue to invest in start-ups with innovative technologies and business models to build safe, secure and sustainable social systems.

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