Graphene Battery Startup Nanotech Energy Raises $64 Million

Los Angeles-based mostly Nanotech Vitality announced Tuesday it raised $64 million in Sequence D funding to enable the business develop its graphene battery procedure. The organization has so significantly elevated $94.9 million in total at a $550 million valuation, following a just about $30 Sequence C round before this year.

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Headquartered together Wilshire Avenue, Nanotech Energy produces graphene-dependent batteries, which promise enhanced electrical power-performance, price-efficiency and charging time for electric powered cars and other consumer electronics. The company’s items are based on the work of two UCLA researchers: Richard Kaner, a chemistry professor who has been exploring graphene engineering because the early 2000s, and Maher El-Kady, a postdoctoral scholar.

Nanotech Energy is one particular of numerous companies performing on graphene-based mostly technologies. Chicago-based NanoGraf, for example, is performing on a system to enable very low-charge producing of graphene-dependent batteries. In the globe of buyer electronics, Genuine Graphene sells a graphene-primarily based ability lender that it claims can deliver a complete telephone cost in below 20 minutes. A Nanotech Electricity spokesperson declined to comment on income figures.

From still left: Nanotech Power co-founder CEO Jack Kavanaugh and UCLA researcher Richard Kaner.

Nanotech Energy’s Series D funding will go toward creating a European headquarters in Amsterdam and to develop a graphene battery manufacturing plant in Reno, Nevada, which is expected to be finished by late 2022. The organization also ideas to make advancements to its plant in Chico, California.

“We have used much more than 7 several years diligently building new supplies to make improvements to battery storage capability and protection and are now shifting into a new phase of generation at industry-stage scale,” stated CEO and co-founder Jack Kavanaugh in a push launch announcing the increase.

The Sequence D round was led by Fubon Economical Keeping Co., a Taiwan-dependent financial expert services company. The Nanotech Electricity spokesperson did not disclose other members in the round.

“We believe that Nanotech Energy’s proprietary, non-flammable graphene batteries have a obvious route to popular adoption and world wide scalability,” Fubon Chairman Richard Tsai stated in the press release.