A summer of ups and downs in the battery sector

In recent weeks, investors have poured more than $160 million into advanced battery startups — capping a tumultuous summer for the storage industry. 

Throughout the third quarter, battery companies with unique approaches to materials development and manufacturing were rewarded with several significant late-stage equity raises. But in the same period, several well-capitalized startups met their demise. 

First, a few examples of growth. Last week, the battery technology company 24M announced that it had raised a $87 million Series H round, led by strategic partner and licensee Nuovo Plus, a Thai battery company. That raise brought the company’s total funding to over $500 million, and its value to $1.3 billion.

The MIT-spinoff isn’t developing a specific battery chemistry, but rather innovates on the technology and manufacturing itself to reduce costs and improve elements like safety or range. For instance, its separator technology, dubbed Impervio, suppresses shorts before they occur, in order to prevent battery fires and mass recalls. Among 24M’s commercial partners and strategic investors are a number of Japanese companies, including the electronics manufacturer Kyocera, the chemicals company Asahi Kasei, the Dai Nippon Printing Company, and the Berkshire Hathaway-owned Itochu.

That same day, the chemistry company 6K — which engineers materials for lithium-ion batteries, as well as other sectors including renewables and consumer electronics — also announced its five-figure raise: an $82 million Series E round led by Anzu Partners, Energy Impact Partners, LaunchCapital, Material Impact, and Volta Energy Technologies. 6K is planning a second close of its Series E round late in the fall.

6K uses itsUniMelt microwave plasma technology to speed up and clean up advanced battery material production, which the company says results in a two-thirds reduction in the energy needed to produce cathode materials, as compared with a conventional approach. The new money will be used specifically to scale up 6K’s production of battery cathode active materials.

A rough summer for others

There have also been plenty of struggles. And the pain — specifically the inability to raise the funds needed to scale — has not been confined to a single type of company. Startups with different strategies, chemistries, and trajectories have all met similar fates.

The closure of Cuberg, the Bay Area lithium-metal startup that was acquired by Northvolt in 2021, is the most recent. Northvolt was one of cleantech’s most talked-about, and well-capitalized companies. So even though the acquisition came early in Cuberg’s development, the team determined that the Swedish battery company would mean opportunity for scale and long-term access to capital, founder and former CEO Richard Wang told Latitude Media.

But Northvolt — despite the fact that it was once valued privately by investors at $12 billion — faced manufacturing challenges, especially at its gigafactory in Northern Sweden in 2023 that forced it to push back its IPO. And those difficulties made it difficult for the company to support Cuberg. Rather than attempt to find additional funding for Cuberg, and perhaps demonstrate weakness to the market in the midst of trying to raise more money, it shut down the subsidiary’s operations last month.

It was a sign of brewing problems for Northvolt. On Monday, reports emerged that the company will cut a significant number of jobs and sell some of its energy storage and materials businesses, in order to refocus its attention on delays and safety issues at its gigafactory. The company will pause its cathode active materials production for now. 

Meanwhile, in July, the portable battery company Moxion Power also folded abruptly — a dramatic collapse for a company that had raised a $100 million Series B round just two years ago. Earlier this month, the company filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. And earlier this summer, lithium-metal startup Ionic Materials shut down as well, as did the liquid metal battery maker Ambri.

But venture investors are still backing advanced battery technologies. Last month, the sodium-ion battery maker Peak Energy announced a $55 million Series A, led by Xora Innovation. In an interview with Latitude Media at the time, Peak COO Cameron Dales said the company wants to become “the CATL of America.”