Anaphite, a Bristol, UK-based company that incorporates graphene into lithium-ion batteries, raised £4.1m in seed funding.
Elbow Beach Capital, a decarbonization, sustainability and social impact investor, led the round was a £1.5 million investment, supported by Wealth Club, Blue Wire Capital, Oxford Investment Opportunity Network, Zero Carbon Capital, Silicon Roundabout Ventures and Deeptech Labs. Jon Pollock has joined Anaphite’s Board of Directors as a representative of Elbow Beach Capital with immediate effect. Elbow Beach Capital Advisory Board member, Dr Johnathan Matlock acts as a Board Advisor to the company.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its development efforts, to open licence negotiations with a material supplier or cell manufacturer, build a materials demonstration reactor with 100kg/day production volume.
Founded in 2018 by Sam Burrow and Alex Hewitt, Anaphite is creating patent-pending self-assembly technology to develop graphene-enhanced cathodes and novel coating methods for EV batteries, in particular Li-ion batteries. The company incorporates graphene into battery materials, via a scalable process that fits directly into existing cell production lines. Anaphite focuses on the enhancement of lithium-ion batteries for the electric vehicle industry.
Test potential niche applications for the technology, for example in drones or e-bikes, validate the company’s battery prototype with an OEM, and complete a 10m roll-to-roll coating line demonstrating Anaphite’s novel low energy battery production process, by the end of 2023. Anaphite aims for its technology to be used in commercial EV production by 2028.
The company’s next phase of growth will be led by Joe Stevenson, who is joining Anaphite as CEO in September. He brings over 20 years of experience in the commercial and engineering sectors, having most recently been employed as a Commercial Director for Arcola Energy and Ballard Motive Solutions. Prior to this, Stevenson was a Corporate Strategy Director at Johnson Matthey.
FinSMEs
26/08/2022