A “green” Sydney Bitcoin mining startup has raised $2.6 million in a pre-seed round, breaking an Australian record set just three weeks ago.

Arkon Energy broke the record set by Instant, which in early February raised $2.2 million to fund its plan to improve and standardise the e-commerce checkout process. Two Brisbane teenagers founded the startup alast April.

Akron is founded by its chief executive, Joshua Payne of Sydney, and its chief operating officer, Nathan Townsend of the Gold Coast. Payne is the COO and co-founder of a New York Stock Exchange-listed special purpose acquisition company, Battery Future Acquisition Corp, which raised US$345 million in an IPO in December. Townsend is a former partner at boutique project advisory firm PT Capital.

Akron says it has a two-year 44-megawatt renewable energy pipeline across a number of partnerships, including landfill gas power and a Victoria wind farm.

‘The advantage of mining Bitcoin is that you are storing energy in money, which can either be immediately converted back to Australian dollars at a five-times greater profit margin’

Judging from photos it appears to be keeping the Bitcoin miners in shipping containers for on-site mining.

“Due to the grid oversupply issues causing the cost of power to run negative during the day, renewable energy generation asset owners must consider alternative sources of electricity monetisation to remain profitable and competitive,” says Payne.

“Most large renewable companies are already exploring the use of battery storage to store energy and deliver it to the grid on-peak for additional profit. But this only provides a small window of opportunity during the day to benefit from high power prices.

“There are benefits we provide for our clients are built on two fundamentals. The first is that fundamentally, Bitcoin is money.

“The second is that the processes of converting energy to battery storage and converting energy to Bitcoin, are essentially the same.

“The advantage of mining Bitcoin is that you are storing energy in money, which can either be immediately converted back to Australian dollars at a five-times greater profit margin, or held for long-term price appreciation.“.

Blockchain investment firm Kestrel0x1 led the raise, with Linked Group Services and a suite of angel investors participating.

Akron says it has hopes of following in the footsteps of Mawson Infrastructure Group and Iris Energy, two Sydney-based Bitcoin mining companies that both listed on the NASDAQ in the second half of last year. They listed at enterprise valuations of US$800 million and US$1.5 billion respectively, Akron says.

Setting an ambitious target, Akron Energy says it “aims to achieve similar results within 24 months”.

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