Barocal raises $10M to replace traditional cooling tech

Barocal, a startup developing solid-state cooling technology, has raised a $10 million seed round to commercialize its technology. The company’s system promises to use significantly less energy than traditional vapor compression, which is the standard cooling technology used in modern refrigerators.

The seed funding round included participation from several key investors:

• World Fund
• Breakthrough Energy Discovery
• Cambridge Enterprise Ventures
• IP Group

The core technology behind Barocal stems from research conducted by Xavier Moya, a founder of the company and a professor of materials physics at the University of Cambridge. Moya’s interest in heating and cooling technologies dates back to his youth in Spain. His academic work focused on solid materials that can capture and release heat when they are compressed and stretched. To illustrate this physical principle, Moya often points to the simple action of stretching a balloon: “If you stretch it, it gets hot. And then if you wait, when you let it go, it feels cold,” he explained.

Barocal’s system applies this exact mechanism to solid organic materials. Early prototypes of the technology are already as effective as existing refrigerator compressors. However, because the system relies entirely on solid materials rather than gases, there is no risk of leaking climate-warming gases into the atmosphere.

This solid-state approach offers a clean alternative to traditional refrigeration systems, which have relied on the same basic vapor compression technology for more than 100 years. Conventional systems depend on gaseous refrigerants that pose severe environmental risks. Greenhouse gas-based refrigerants are a major concern because they can warm the climate over 1,000 times more than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.

While Barocal’s technology can scale to various sizes, the company is prioritizing larger commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) and refrigeration systems. By targeting these larger systems first, the company aims to deliver noticeable efficiency gains to commercial customers while maximizing its environmental impact. “We are looking at bigger commercial systems where I think we can make a bigger impact faster,” Moya said.

Why it matters

The transition to solid-state cooling represents a potential shift away from century-old vapor compression technology, offering a path to eliminate the use of high-impact greenhouse gases in refrigeration.