Finland’s SpinDrive raises €3.8M from Rhapsody Venture Partners, others

Lappeenranta, Finland-based SpinDrive, a company specialised in active magnetic bearings (AMBs), announced on Wednesday that it has secured €3.8M in a Series A round of funding. 

The round was led by US-based Rhapsody Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Innovestor and Born2Grow. 

To date, the company has raised a total of €8M in funding from a syndicate of VCs, private investors, and public funding. 

Fund utlisation

SpinDrive will use the funding to enhance global growth by providing a cost-effective alternative to high-maintenance, oil-dependent, and energy-wasting bearing technologies for industrial machinery manufacturers, resulting in increased energy efficiency and productivity.

The company will also develop a new range of Active Magnetic Bearings for new applications.

“We have seen increasing international demand for more energy efficiency and cleaner solutions in industrial production, and we are excited to build SpinDrive to meet those customer needs with our active magnetic bearing systems and controllers. With its specialisation in industrial technologies and global reach into industrial companies, Rhapsody Venture Partners is an ideal partner for us, and we’re thrilled to be working with them,” says Nikita Uzhegov, COO and Co-founder of SpinDrive.

SpinDrive: Providing affordable active magnetic bearings

Founded in 2015 by Janne Heikkinen, Nikita Uzhegov, and Alexander Smirnov, SpinDrive provides design, prototyping, and serial production of active magnetic bearings (AMBs) for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). 

The company’s frictionless bearings are smaller, more energy efficient, and more affordable than its competitors. The bearings work through magnetic levitation, where there is no contact between rotating and stationary parts. 

According to the Finnish company, no maintenance is needed for up to 20 years in high-speed applications due to its frictionless design, ensuring energy efficiency and preventing equipment downtime.

As a result, the company reduces energy losses in the machine by half. 

For a 500-kW unit, this solution mitigates 200 tons of CO2 emissions annually, which is equivalent to 2,000 barrels of oil burnt, and enables a 2-year payback time. 

The company also helps customers to significantly increase their solutions’ system efficiency, reduce material consumption, and minimise maintenance costs. 

SpinDrive’s bearings provide condition monitoring and predictive maintenance for the entire machine. It eliminates the need for external sensors and reduces overall equipment maintenance costs by 80 per cent.

SpinDrive lowers the customer’s equipment lifecycle costs by 35 per cent.

“Industrial production is a massive part of the world’s energy consumption and climate emissions, so we must create energy-efficient and clean components to turn this tide. By improving the energy efficiency in existing and new machinery, we tackle the problem in a massive area and provide a significant impact,” says Janne Heikkinen, CEO and Co-founder of SpinDrive.

SpinDrive has customers in Finland, Germany, the USA, Denmark, France, Italy, China, and the United Kingdom. The company has offices in Finland and Germany. 

The investor

Based in Cambridge, MA, Rhapsody Venture Partners invests in industrial science startups.

“We scour the world for great hard science breakthroughs and love innovations that sell. SpinDrive’s system is much cheaper and better than anything else in the market. We are excited to partner with the team and to help grow SpinDrive internationally, ” says Carsten Boers, Managing Partner at lead investor Rhapsody Venture Partners.