Electric car battery startups raised $3.6 billion last year.
Battery technology is a way for automakers to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Meet 14 of the best-funded battery teams tackling the EV industry.
Electric car battery startups brought in $3.6 billion in 2021 – several times the $174.7 million raised the previous year – a nod to the huge investments needed to secure the future of electric vehicles .
As automakers like Ford and GM transition to all-electric lineups over the next decade, they’ll need more and more technologies to stand out from the competition, including Tesla and startups Rivian and Lucid. That means finding cheaper battery chemistries that deliver longer runtimes. It also means technologies for depleted batteries that can be replaced with charged batteries, or that can recycle valuable materials needed for the next generation of electric vehicles.
And that means any startup that can satisfy those needs is about to do pretty well.
Here’s a look at 14 of the EV battery startups that have raised the most money in the past four years, and how they hope to reinvent the auto industry. (The data, provided by Crunchbase, is from March 2.)
Peter Carlsson, CEO of Northvolt
Northvolt
Northvolt
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
Total funding: $6.5 billion
Northvolt is known as one of Europe’s most ambitious battery manufacturers and plans to build the continent’s largest lithium-ion plant.
The lithium-ion battery manufacturing startup is led by Peter Carlsson, formerly Tesla’s vice president of supply chain, and is backed by Spotify founder Daniel Ek.
It has billions of dollars worth of contracts to supply companies like BMW, Volkswagen and Scania. And it has a joint venture with Volvo to serve as the exclusive battery supplier.
SVOLT
Headquarters: Changzhou, China
Total funding: $3.29 billion
SVOLT is a spin-off from Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors and is led by Yang Hongxin. It raised three major funding rounds last year.
SVOLT is like many battery companies that have partnerships or collaborations directly with automakers. It will supply batteries for the new electric vehicles of Stellantis, the automaker resulting from the merger of the PSA group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, from 2025.
JB Straubel is the founder and CEO of Redwood Materials.
redwood materials
redwood materials
Headquarters: Carson City, Nevada
Total funding: $815 million
Backed by Amazon and Goldman Sachs, Redwood is perhaps the best-known battery recycling company. Led by Elon Musk’s former right-hand man, JB Straubel, the company is looking to close the loop in the battery supply chain. Redwood recycles, processes and returns to automotive production the precious metals used in electric vehicle batteries, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, to customers such as Tesla battery supplier Panasonic.
He is currently working with Ford and Volvo on a battery recycling program in California.
HSE
Headquarters: Woburn, Massachusetts
Total funding: $600.1 million
Formerly known as SolidEnergy Systems, SES hopes to deliver longer range to electric vehicles, improve fast-charging capabilities and reduce battery weight and production costs through lithium-metal hybrid technology.
The 10-year-old startup has backing from General Motors, Hyundai and Kia, among others. At the head of the company is Qichao Hu.
It went public through SPAC with Ivanhoe Capital Acquisition Corp earlier this year.
Romeo Power has a broad focus on commercial vehicle applications.
Power of Romeo
Power of Romeo
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
Total funding: $516.6 million
Founded in 2016, Romeo Power largely provides energy solutions for commercial vehicle use cases, including modular battery technology and a battery management system.
CEO Susan Brennan, a Nissan and Ford veteran, took the helm last August.
The company recently partnered with ride-sharing and delivery electric utility vehicle maker Indigo Technologies, and says it has struck deals with other unnamed customers.
Solid power
Headquarters: Louisville, Colorado
Total funding: $717 million
The Ford and BMW-backed startup has developed solid-state batteries (a potentially major departure from the traditional lithium-ion battery) in hopes of making batteries denser and more durable. Solid-state batteries also offer better performance and a reduced risk of fire.
The company recently went public in a $1.2 billion investment
after-sales service
with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation III. Doug Campbell is CEO.
Ample is a battery swapping startup.
Loose
Loose
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Total funding: $275.7 million
The battery swap company is looking to relaunch a concept that would allow drivers to park at a station and drive away with a new, fully charged battery. While the model hasn’t worked in the past, Ample hopes to change that by targeting specific use cases.
The seven-year-old startup has a partnership with Uber and hopes to capitalize on ride-sharing or vehicle fleets.
Its modular technology requires that a vehicle be equipped with the right components to be able to change its battery. Private equity giant The Blackstone Group poured $50 million into Ample in 2021 alone.
Philion Battery
Headquarters: Suzhou, China
Total funding: $200.2 million
From the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this startup has been developing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles since 2003.
So far, Phylion’s batteries have been used in light electric vehicles, bicycles and tricycles, four-wheeled vehicles and for energy storage. In addition to its presence in China, it also has subsidiaries in Europe and India. He says he has delivered 18 million batteries worldwide to date.
Enevate claims that using a more energy-dense silicon material can enable faster charging.
Bewitch
Bewitch
Headquarters: Irvine, CA
Total funding: $192.6 million
Enevate’s cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion cells means replacing a key component of the EV battery with a safer, more efficient and energy-dense silicon material. The company claims this also allows for extremely fast charging.
Led by CEO Robert Rango, Enevate has backing from Panasonic, LG Chem and the Renault-Mitsubishi-Nissan Alliance, among other investors.
It recently announced plans to expand its pre-production line and offices in California.
StoreDot
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Total funding: $190.5 million
Another pioneer in fast charging, StoreDot also manufactures silicon-dominated batteries. He says he is currently shipping his technology to automakers for testing.
Led by CEO Doron Myersdorf, the company was founded in 2012. StoreDot has received notable investments from BP, Daimler and Samsung Ventures. It also gained approval from VinFast, a brand new electric vehicle company that manufactures BMW-based vehicles from Vietnam, in a recent funding round.
Truck maker Tevva is also developing batteries and management systems to assess the health of its batteries internally.
Tevva
Tevva
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Total funding: $121.1 million
The truck maker is also developing batteries and management systems to assess the health of its batteries internally. It uses lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry rather than incorporating cobalt, which is often sourced from unethical mining practices around the world.
Its technology also included a fuel cell range extender, which can supplement the performance and needs of a traditional battery.
Founded in 2012 by CEO Asher Bennet and others, it unveiled its Tevva electric truck in September 2021 and raised $57 million in November.
ION Storage Systems
Headquarters: Beltsville, Maryland
Total funding: $52.5 million
The battery company is looking for a scalable, cost-effective way to commercialize solid-state technology.
It’s a 10-year spin-off from the University of Maryland.
Coreshell Technologies
Headquarters: Berkeley, California
Total funding: $19 million
Coreshell develops battery coating technology that can extend the life of lithium-ion and solid-state batteries as well as other battery chemistries. This could improve the safety and cost of a battery and reduce the amount of EV battery degradation that occurs over time.
CEO Jonathan Tan co-founded the company in 2017 with CTO Roger Basu.
It recently closed a $12 million funding round led by sustainable energy venture capital firms Trousdale Ventures, Industry Ventures and Helios Capital Ventures.
Connected energy
Headquarters: Newcastle, UK
Total funding: $13.2 million
The startup collects used EV batteries and deploys them for commercial second-life energy storage systems.
Investors like Sumitomo Corporation, Turquoise Capital, Engie New Ventures and others have backed Connected Energy, which was founded in 2014 by CEO Matthew Lumsden.
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