Group14 Technologies CTO Rick Costantino and CEO Rick Luebbe are seen outside of the company's commercial-scale Battery Active Materials (BAM) manufacturing factory in Woodinville.
Group14 Technologies, a Woodinville-based manufacturer of advanced silicon battery technology, has raised an additional $214 million in Series C financing, it announced today.
The financing comes from a consortium that includes Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Lightrock Climate Impact Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Oman Investment Authority, and Molicel.
The additional funding brings Group14’s Series C round to $614 million, making it one of the top 10 largest financings in the climate tech sector this year, Group14 said in a news release, citing data from Seattle-based PitchBook.
Rick Luebbe, co-founder and CEO of Group14 Technologies.
The latest raise follows news in May that Group 14 had raised $400 million in Series C financing through a group led by Porsche AG.
The growing importance of market-ready, transformational battery technology to power the electrification of everything has driven interest from strategic, financial, and impact investors in commercial manufacturers of silicon battery technology like Group 14, the company said in its release.
“Batteries are becoming the backbone of the clean energy transition,” Brandon Middaugh, director of Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, added in the release. “As we scout out solutions based on cutting-edge science that can accelerate decarbonization and support a more sustainable tomorrow, Group 14’s technology shows strong potential to accelerate decarbonization of transportation, electronics, energy storage, and beyond.”
Group 14 launched its Battery Active Materials (BAM-1) factory in Woodinville in April 2021 with capacity for 120 tons per year of its SCC55 silicon-carbon battery technology. It’s building another factory, BAM-2, in Moses Lake, thanks to the Series C funding and a $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
To address demand from carmakers and global battery manufacturers, Group14 is building factories globally to produce silicon battery technology that delivers higher performance than traditional lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy density and charge rates, it said. Group 14 is building another BAM factory in South Korea in a joint venture with SK Inc.
“It comes down to shortening the path to market for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) so we can meet EV demand today,” Rick Luebbe, CEO and co-founder of Group 14, said in today’s release. “The market has been moving at a breakneck pace, and right now, we’re truly at a crossroads for the future of electrified mobility. This investment is a testament to the mission on which Group14 has been founded: a cleaner, more sustainable planet for generations to come.”
Gloss