Addionics raises $27M for redesign batteries

Addionics has raised $27 Million in funding to scale up the development of next-generation batteries with Smart 3D Electrodes.

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Addionics claims that its chemistry-agnostic technology unlocks improvements across all key battery characteristics, meeting rising global demand for low-cost, high-performance energy storage solutions.

Smart 3D Electrodes improve the cost and performance of batteries with any chemistry – existing or emerging. The funding round was led by Deep Insight, a tech investment firm founded and backed by Jeff Horing, the founder of Insight Partners, together with Catalyst Fund, Delek Motors and Dr. Boaz Schwartz.

Additional investors include Novelis, Magna International, JX Nippon Mining & Metals, Union Tech Ventures, 8090 Partners, GiTV, Talcar Corporation, Bridges Israel impact investment fund, Doral Energy Tech Ventures (Doral Energy CVC), and David Deak. Existing investors that participated in the round include NextGear Ventures and Vasuki Global Tech Fund.

Along with his investment, Deak joins Addionics’ board of directors, leveraging his experience leading supply chain projects and battery engineering programs on Tesla’s Gigafactory team. Former executive director at NIO Capital, Yair Shacked, has also recently joined Addionics’ advisory board.

How it works

Addionics is focused on redesigning battery architecture, replacing the electrode’s traditional two-dimensional layered structure with an integrated 3D structure. This approach results in batteries with increased energy density and power, enhanced safety, and longer lifetime – all without increasing battery cost.

This innovation unlocks the full potential of next-generation battery chemistries to address rising global battery demand driven by electrification trends and decarbonization mandates, the company said.

The company’s core intellectual property is its patented and scalable electrode fabrication process that significantly lowers manufacturing costs, enabling mass market adoption of 3D electrode structures for the first time.

This drop-in solution is compatible with existing battery manufacturing facilities and assembly lines. In addition, Addionics’ proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm accelerates battery development time, optimizing electrode designs to meet any battery application and performance requirement.

With the combination of Addionics’ patented manufacturing process and AI algorithm, manufacturers can build high performance batteries with reduced market prices at the giga scale.

“With the backing of our esteemed investors and strategic partners, Addionics is forging a clear path to market disruption and is well-positioned to deliver higher performing, lower cost batteries at scale,” Moshiel Biton, CEO of Addionics, said in a statement. “We look forward to accelerating our product development and laying the necessary groundwork for commercialization, as we remain committed to our mission of revolutionizing the battery industry by building the best battery cell architecture in the market.”

Addionics plans to advance the integration of its technology into a wide variety of applications, with an initial focus on electric vehicles together with some of the world’s largest automakers and suppliers. The company is collaborating with leading automakers and suppliers in the U.S. and Europe to integrate 3D Smart Electrodes with lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (NMC), lithium iron phosphate (LFP), silicon, lithium polymer battery chemistries and solid-state batteries (SSB).

“At Catalyst Fund, we align closely with Addionics’ mission of revolutionizing the energy storage industry and supporting a net-zero future,” said Yair Shamir, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, in a statement. “With its unique physics-based approach to battery technology, Addionics stands above the competition in terms of mass market potential. The company is not only an exciting climate tech investment opportunity, but we foresee it as a key enabler of the electric transition.”

The new investment follows an initial $9 million in funding led by Next Gear Ventures, which included a $2.5 million grant as part of the European Union’s Horizon2020 innovation competition. Addionics plans to utilize the additional investment to further develop its technology capabilities and applications, with the goal of reaching commercialization by 2024. The funding will also be leveraged to expand the company’s team and increase its activity in the U.S. and Germany to better engage with partners.

Addionics has 20 employees in London and Israel, and hopes to expand its team in the U.S. and Germany in the near future.

In 2018, Addionics was founded with the mission to revolutionize the energy storage industry by building the best battery architecture in the market. But the story began in 2014, when the future founders of Addionics were academic researchers in material engineering. They were investigating the cause of hazardous explosions in batteries, such as what had recently occurred in the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and were the first to investigate this in real-time under a microscope. They realized the dendrite architecture that causes batteries to short circuit is really interesting, and they hypothesized that this negative phenomenon could be used to actually benefit battery performance.

They didn’t invent the concept of 3D structures, nor were they the first to understand the benefits. Many scientific papers have been published on the subject, and they’ve even been used in older batteries prior to Li-Ion. But the problem was there wasn’t a cost-effective manufacturing process to develop the required metals.

Addionics has solved for this in developing a new scalable and cost-effective metal fabrication process for both the anode and the cathode — the core IP of Addionics. This is a completely drop-in solution that’s compatible with existing battery manufacturing facilities and dry/wet processes – a huge advantage for battery manufacturers in terms of time to market and battery cost, which can be reduced up to 10% per kWh with its solution.

The manufacturing process is supported by a proprietary AI algorithm that helps predict and determine the best structure according to the application requirements. The software also collects data that helps improve and accelerate product development, optimize processes, reduce costs, and no less important – protect the company’s IP.

The biggest differentiator for the technology is that it’s chemistry agnostic. There’s no question that the industry still needs to advance new battery chemistries and commercialize promising technologies such as solid-state. But these new chemistries still come with technical limitations. But when combined with new approaches to battery design such as 3D Smart Electrodes, the company can overcome these challenges faster.

The mission is to integrate the solution into every battery in the world so that it can accelerate electrification and the shift to a zero carbon economy.

Addionics plans to use the additional investment to further develop its technology capabilities and applications with the goal of reaching commercialization by 2024. The funding will also be leveraged to build two pilot production facilities, to expand the company’s team, and to increase its activity in the U.S. and Germany to better engage with partners.

Addionics has five commercial projects underway within the automotive space with leading companies and conglomerates. These projects are paid, and each one focused on another battery chemistry integrated with smart 3D electrodes — to also demonstrate the vision.

Development of a smart 3D silicon anode-based battery, in a collaboration with an American automotive tier 1 player
A collaboration (also funded by the BIRD foundation with $1 million) with Saint-Gobain to codevelop a solid-state battery

Addionics has raised nearly $40 million to date. The $27 million investment follows an initial $9 million in funding led by Next Gear Ventures, which included a $2.5 million grant as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation competition.