Paleblue Earth Raises Over $850K via Wefunder Campaign
Paleblue Earth is on a mission to replace disposable batteries with sustainable, rechargeable lithium ion batteries. It has already raised over $850K from dozens of investors via a crowdsourced, Wefunder campaign—well on its way to its $1 million investment target.
Over 100 investors have invested thus far in the Park City-based sustainable tech company via this current crowdsourced campaign. They receive a convertible note that they can convert to equity. The company is claiming a $14 million valuation for this investment campaign.
Thomas Bishop, CEO and Co-Founder of Paleblue Earth, said about this campaign, “Solving a problem so ubiquitous and easy to understand has proven to translate very well to Wefunder and we are excited we are getting such great traction with our campaign.”
According to the company, consumers in the US use and then throw away over ten million batteries a day, recycling only 5% of them. Paleblue wants to change that through its patent-pending product line of batteries that include USB and USB-C charging ports neatly incorporated into the design of the battery itself, instead of requiring easily-misplaced external charging trays for charging the batteries.
After a successful crowdfund in 2019 and a 2020 launch, the company has grown rapidly in direct-to-consumer channels and international markets.
This year the company launched an aggressive and successful retail expansion drive that increased its retail presence in 30 retail locations (2022) to over 350 retail locations today. It currently serves 20 international markets as well. The company plans to have 1,000 storefronts nationwide by the end of the year.
Revenue-wise, the company is witnessing growth as well. Paleblue Earth's 2022 revenue amounted to $3.3 million, an 180% increase from the company's 2021 revenue of $1.85 million.
Paleblue Earth will use the funds from the current Wefunder campaign to capitalize further expansion into additional retail locations. 85% of batteries are sold in retail locations.
Paleblue batteries are available in six commonly used consumer sizes: AAA, AA, C, D, 9v, and CR123A, each having an on-board battery management system (BMS) which enables fast USB-C charging.
Each battery is made using li-ion, which is faster charging, longer lasting, more reliable and better performing then both alkaline single use batteries as well as competing rechargeables.
Paleblue batteries are USB-rechargeable, easily connecting to an existing electric outlet or mobile power source and can recharge to full power surprisingly fast (AAA in 1 hour, AA in 90 minutes). Each battery has onboard LED lights indicating when it is fully charged.
Bishop explained that average disposable alkaline batteries have a high starting voltage, but drop over time with use. With alkaline batteries, a flashlight grows dimmer until it eventually goes out completely. Likewise, nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries start at 1.2 volts and gradually decrease from there. In contrast, Paleblue Earth batteries start with 1.5 volts and never decrease, ensuring the same performance all the way until a battery needs to be recharged. Hence, the flashlight with Paleblue batteries do not dim over time; they stay bright until they go out entirely, and then need to be recharged.
For more details about the product, founding team, and origin story, see Mattea Gygi's October 2022 profile story in TechBuzz News.
For more information about Paleblue Earth's Wefunder campaign click here.