This Israeli startup is overhauling an “overlooked” battery component

An Israeli battery technology company seeking to manufacture in the United States after passage of the Inflation Reduction Act now has more cash to make it a reality.

• The top line: The startup Addionics raised a $39 million Series B round, with GM Ventures and the Israeli venture fund Deep Insight leading the round, the company announced today. The Swedish manufacturer Scania also participated, along with new and returning strategic investors. The funds are slated to help the company scale its manufacturing and expand its international presence, including via its first United States factory. 
• The nuts and bolts: Addionics makes copper and aluminum components for electric vehicle batteries: sheer, porous, and three-dimensional sheets of metal that the company says cost less and use less material than widely used alternatives. Called “3D current collectors,” the technology is designed to easily drop into existing EV battery manufacturing facilities.

Addionics CEO and co-founder Moshiel Biton is a scientist, with a PhD in material science, focused on the engineering challenge that batteries present. 

He described 3D current collectors as “overlooked,” as most battery innovation is focused on new battery chemistries. But the component, he added, is “the first building block” of the battery. Today, their production (especially of the copper foil) is dominated by Chinese companies.

“Everyone is focusing on the chemistry, but not on the metal. It’s an untapped component,” Biton told Latitude Media. “The idea is to reduce the weight of the metal to up to 60% of copper and aluminum, and this will result in cost reduction in a battery.” 

Biton added that in recent years all the major car and battery manufacturers have already managed to “squeeze everything” from automating their manufacturing processes. He described cost savings from materials as “the next optimization” where Addionics is seeing customer interest. The company says its current collectors result in batteries with a faster charging time, increased power, and better stability.

Though still just moving past the demonstration phase, Addionics is already in talks with large potential customers. With that value proposition, Addionics has attracted the attention of “the majority of the 10 biggest automotive OEMs and battery manufacturers,” according to the company. While those OEMs excel in marketing and supply chains, Biton said they are not “experts in innovation.”

“They need to have external innovation,” he said. “Maybe they build the engine, but all the other components they source from other suppliers.”

Addionics, though it has yet to scale its production, sees itself as the source of that innovation for the EV battery supply chain. The company’s process of reducing the metal needed by its components has resulted in “more real estate” in the battery where active material can be loaded. 

“We are changing the proportion between the chemistry and the metal, and this is allowing us to save cost,” Biton said. He added that this will be essential for the commercialization of emerging battery chemistries in particular. 

Armed with its Series B funding, Addionics plans to build up teams beyond Israel, and expand its manufacturing and commercialization “across the globe” 

The lure of the U.S. 

Biton said that the company is in the process of scaling up, with construction underway on a demonstration line in Tel Aviv. Bolstered by DOE encouragement in the shape of a $50 million IRA grant, the company is planning for its first commercial plant in the U.S. (The specific location is not yet public.) 

Addionics first received a $1 million bilateral grant from DOE and Israel’s Energy Department in 2020. Today, though, the company is undergoing due diligence for up to $50 million in IRA grants to facilitate the first phase of construction of its U.S. plant. 

“The reason that we decided to do it in the U.S. is because of those incentives,” Biton said. 

A central part of the IRA’s appeal for Addionics is to cut through the “catch 22” involved in scaling up manufacturing, wherein investors won’t give a company money until there are contracts in hand, but customers won’t sign contracts until production is underway. Federal incentives in the U.S., though, are helping Addionics to “bridge that gap” and scale up more easily. 

Addionics, which was founded in 2017, has been interested in the U.S. for a few years. With new incentives and a maturing supply chain for EVs and batteries, of the maturing supply “it’s a crime not to manufacture in the U.S. these days,” said Biton.

Biton is also attracted to the “mountains of copper scrap” in the U.S. The company has negotiated with several companies in the burgeoning copper recycling sector to use the metal derived from old cables and wires in the company’s supply chain.

The company currently plans to reach full-scale production in 2027 or 2028.