New funding backs an AI-led deployment at a 140,000-square-foot plant.
Gyre Energy has raised $1.3m to scale AI-led cooling controls for cold storage, targeting lower power costs and peak demand at larger sites.
Gyre Energy Raises $1.3M to Scale AI-Powered Cold Storage Cooling
Oxford-founded Gyre Energy has secured more than $1.3 million in investment and grant funding as it prepares to expand its cooling technology into larger cold-storage and industrial facilities.
Speedinvest led the pre-seed financing, with participation from Rule 30 and Plug and Play. The funding will support Gyre’s move into large-scale cold-chain operations, including a planned installation with an unnamed global logistics company that handles temperature-sensitive goods.
The system will be deployed inside a chamber at a 140,000-square-foot cold-chain facility. It will be Gyre’s largest installation so far and its first project with a major international logistics operator.
Gyre Energy Targets Cooling Costs and Peak Electricity Demand
Gyre’s platform combines AI-based forecasting, automated refrigeration controls and thermal energy storage. The technology is designed to help cold-storage operators manage when cooling equipment consumes electricity without allowing temperatures to move outside required operating limits.
The software assesses a facility’s operating patterns and forecasts future cooling demand. It can then adjust equipment schedules based on factors including energy prices, grid demand and available cooling capacity.
Gyre’s thermal storage system can produce and retain cooling when electricity is cheaper or associated with lower carbon intensity. Facilities can use that stored capacity later, reducing compressor activity during periods when grid demand and electricity prices are higher.
A key part of the company’s commercial approach is compatibility with existing refrigeration infrastructure. Rather than requiring operators to replace an entire cooling system, Gyre’s technology is intended to work alongside installed equipment. This could reduce deployment costs and limit disruption, although results will vary according to site design, refrigeration loads, electricity tariffs and operating schedules.
Performance at the new logistics facility will be assessed against a baseline developed using the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol. The methodology is intended to separate savings linked to the technology from changes caused by weather, production volumes and other operating conditions.
Independent measurement will be important as Gyre moves beyond smaller installations. Cold-storage facilities operate around the clock and must maintain tightly controlled temperatures, leaving limited room for changes that could affect product safety or quality.
At the same time, rising temperatures and volatile energy prices are adding pressure to refrigeration operations. Cooling systems often work hardest during the same periods when electricity demand and prices reach their highest levels.
Gyre’s proposition is that refrigeration systems can provide more flexibility than operators typically use. By producing cooling in advance and reducing equipment use during peak periods, facilities may be able to manage cooling capacity as a controllable energy resource.
Larger Cold-Chain Project Will Test Whether Early Savings Can Scale
Gyre previously tested its platform at a 2,900-square-foot frozen-storage site operated by a large UK chilled and frozen distribution company.
According to figures published by Gyre, the installation reduced daily electricity consumption by 35% and electricity costs by 38%. The company also reported a payback period of less than 18 months.
Those figures offer an early indication of the platform’s potential, but they were recorded at a much smaller facility. The upcoming deployment will test whether similar savings can be achieved across a site with more complex refrigeration equipment, higher energy loads and stricter operational requirements.
The logistics customer has not been identified, limiting the amount of independent scrutiny possible before the installation begins. More detailed performance data will be needed to determine how the platform performs at scale and whether the savings reported during the earlier project can be repeated.
Gyre is initially focusing on cold storage, food logistics and other industrial cooling applications. These sectors often combine predictable thermal demand with high electricity consumption, creating a potential business case for technologies that improve efficiency and shift energy use away from peak periods.
The company is also assessing data center cooling as a longer-term market. Growth in computing demand is increasing the amount of energy required to remove heat from digital infrastructure. However, data centers and refrigerated warehouses have different reliability, temperature and operational requirements. Gyre has not announced a commercial data center deployment, leaving that opportunity at an earlier stage.
Speedinvest investor Alex Davis pointed to Gyre’s use of AI within physical infrastructure, its focus on measurable energy reductions and its progress from an initial commercial installation to a larger cold-chain project within roughly a year.
Gyre was founded by CEO Dougald Coulson, CTO Michael McKenna and COO Tom Gibson. The founders have backgrounds in machine learning, energy systems and energy technology commercialization, as well as Oxford MBAs.
The company has also received support through Innovate UK grants and the MIT Climate Solver program. It placed second in the SXSW London Venture Spotlight competition.
Gyre’s next test will be whether its technology can produce consistent, independently measured savings at larger facilities. Results from the logistics deployment could shape its expansion across cold storage and determine whether the same approach has a credible role in other industrial cooling markets.
