Group14 Applied sciences CTO Rick Costantino and CEO Rick Luebbe are seen outdoors of the corporate’s commercial-scale Battery Energetic Supplies (BAM) manufacturing manufacturing unit in Woodinville.
Group14 Applied sciences, a Woodinville-based producer of superior silicon battery expertise, has raised a further $214 million in Collection C financing, it introduced at this time.
The financing comes from a consortium that features Microsoft’s Local weather Innovation Fund, Lightrock Local weather Influence Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Oman Funding Authority, and Molicel.
The extra funding brings Group14’s Collection C spherical to $614 million, making it one of many high 10 largest financings within the local weather tech sector this 12 months, Group14 stated in a information launch, citing knowledge from Seattle-based PitchBook.
Rick Luebbe, co-founder and CEO of Group14 Applied sciences.
The most recent elevate follows information in Might that Group 14 had raised $400 million in Collection C financing by a bunch led by Porsche AG.
The rising significance of market-ready, transformational battery expertise to energy the electrification of every little thing has pushed curiosity from strategic, monetary, and affect traders in business producers of silicon battery expertise like Group 14, the corporate stated in its launch.
“Batteries have gotten the spine of the clear vitality transition,” Brandon Middaugh, director of Microsoft’s Local weather Innovation Fund, added within the launch. “As we scout out options primarily based on cutting-edge science that may speed up decarbonization and assist a extra sustainable tomorrow, Group 14’s expertise exhibits robust potential to speed up decarbonization of transportation, electronics, vitality storage, and past.”
Group 14 launched its Battery Energetic Supplies (BAM-1) manufacturing unit in Woodinville in April 2021 with capability for 120 tons per 12 months of its SCC55 silicon-carbon battery expertise. It’s constructing one other manufacturing unit, BAM-2, in Moses Lake, because of the Collection C funding and a $100 million grant from the U.S. Division of Power.
To handle demand from carmakers and international battery producers, Group14 is constructing factories globally to provide silicon battery expertise that delivers larger efficiency than conventional lithium-ion batteries by way of vitality density and cost charges, it stated. Group 14 is constructing one other BAM manufacturing unit in South Korea in a three way partnership with SK Inc.
“It comes all the way down to shortening the trail to marketplace for OEMs (authentic gear producers) so we are able to meet EV demand at this time,” Rick Luebbe, CEO and co-founder of Group 14, stated in at this time’s launch. “The market has been shifting at a breakneck tempo, and proper now, we’re actually at a crossroads for the way forward for electrified mobility. This funding is a testomony to the mission on which Group14 has been based: a cleaner, extra sustainable planet for generations to return.”
