Deal focus: Gridtential charges up for Asia expansion

Few technologies are more tested than the venerable lead-acid battery. Invented in 1859, it is still indispensable to the automotive industry and as an emergency power solution. However, the tradeoff for the technology’s reliability means slow charging and discharging rates and limited depth of charge, meaning the batteries can only discharge up to 50% of their capacity.

“The chemistry is incredibly reliable, quite inexpensive, and the most recycled technology that we know in batteries, and in fact in any consumer product,” says Christian Beekhuis, CEO of Gridtential. “But you have to use so many more batteries to solve your problem in grid storage that it becomes much more expensive than it needs to be.”

Gridtential’s solution is a battery architecture based on the lead-acid design but using silicon wafers instead of lead grids. This offers the fast charging and discharging, depth of discharge, and long cycle life of lithium-ion batteries with the dependability and low cost of lead-acid. With $11 million in Series B funding from cross-border PE firm 1955 Capital, the Roda Group, and several US and Chinese battery makers, the company plans to bring its technology worldwide.

The new investors saw much to recommend in Gridtential’s strategy. Unlike other storage technologies, which require new facilities and production techniques, the company’s approach, which it calls “Silicon Joule,” is largely compatible with existing factories focused on lead-acid batteries. This means that adapting to build the new batteries requires only changing some raw materials.

“A lot of battery start-ups have run into a wall when they realized they had to raise $100 million to build their first factory. Often when you’re creating a new storage paradigm, you need to invent the way you manufacture these products,” says Andrew Chung, founder of 1955 Capital. “Gridtential turns this issue on its head by leveraging existing infrastructure and targeting a more capital flexible scale-up model.”

Gridtential has the additional advantage of using an extremely common material, silicon, for its conducting medium rather than the relatively rare lithium. Silicon has a well-established supply chain both in the US and in China, and manufacturers using Gridtential’s technology have the potential for substantial savings.

The company sees the strategic investment from battery makers East Penn Manufacturing, Crown Battery Manufacturing, Leoch International and Power-Sonic as a key sign of its potential. The new investors will send representatives to Gridtential’s technical team to provide input into industry and consumer needs, in order to guide the technology down paths that hold promise for them.

“They can really help us short-circuit a lot of potential wild goose chases and keep us from going down paths that might not be productive. So we are actually hearing from customers who will adopt the technology, and they’re assisting us in bringing it forward,” says Beekhuis.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• 1955 Capital
• energy