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To increase the capacity of electric vehicle batteries, automakers are increasingly turning to silicon, a widely available but fragile ingredient that can increase capacity by at least 20 percent.
Sila, Group14, Envoix and Amprius are all trying to commercialize silicon anode technology to meet consumers' desire for more EV range.
Seed-stage startup Ionobell is hoping to top this list, claiming its silicone material will be cheaper than existing competitors.
Smaller startups use an approach most similar to Sila and Group14. Both existing companies impregnate porous graphite structures with silicon. Sila also adds a coating to the particles. Ionobell appears to be flipping the script, according to the company's patent. Instead of graphite, it starts with a porous silicon structure and is surrounded by a coating.
“It’s not bloat,” Ionobell co-founder and CEO Robert Neivert told TechCrunch. He said, “It's like dropping a nerf ball into water and it gets absorbed without the outer shell changing.”
Silicon can hold 10 times more lithium ions than graphite. However, the swelling phenomenon during this process is so severe that regular silicon anodes can break if used repeatedly. These vulnerabilities have prevented manufacturers from incorporating too many elements, typically less than 10%.
Still, the potential of silicon is too great to overlook.
Ionobell's silicone supply comes from waste sources, which helps keep costs down, Neivert said. “Most of the cost savings are in the materials,” he said, adding that Ionobell’s materials are cheaper than graphite.
Neivert initially met Ionobell as an investor. At first, “I rejected them as an investment,” he said, explaining all the reasons why auto suppliers would not adopt their technology. The team went back to work and solved the problem to Neivert's satisfaction, including adapting the material for use on widely used manufacturing equipment. Neivert secured his seed funding and came on board as CEO.
The last round closed in 2020, according to Pitchbook. However, Ionobell recently closed an unpriced $3.9 million seed expansion, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Dynamo Ventures and Trucks VC led the round.
Such expansions have become more common as deeptech companies are undercapitalized but struggle to raise new pricing rounds as markets begin to reset after a frothy start to the 2020s.
Like other battery material companies, Ionobel also faces a difficult road ahead. The verification process required by automotive companies can be long and arduous. Not all materials pass through.
Additionally, competitors such as Group14 and Sila are nearing commercialization, with silicon-rich anodes expected to hit the market as early as this year and next.
Ionobel has a lot of room for improvement, but its promise to lower prices could give it a boost. Whatever the case, the next wave of lithium-ion innovation is almost upon us, and silicon is leading the way.