Mitra Future Technologies (Mitra Chem), a lithium-ion battery materials manufacturer, completed a $40 million first close of a $60 million Series B funding round which is expected to help the company develop and commercialize iron-based cathode materials.
The Series B funding round was led by General Motors (GM), along with Social Capital, Fontinalis Partners, Earthshot Ventures, The Keffi Group, Boutique Venture Partners, and new investors such as GS Futures, Bricks Capital Management, Zeon Ventures, Scribble VC, WovenEarth Ventures, Bonds Investment Group, and others.
In December 2021, the company raised a $20 Million Series A Funding round led by Social Capital along with Taiwanese industrialist Richard Tsai, Fontinalis Partners, Integrated Energy Materials, and Earthshot Ventures.
According to Mercom’s Q2 funding and M&A report, VC funding for materials and components providers has seen a rise in demand, with $524 million raised in Q2 2023 due to the growing demand for battery materials, with more manufacturers investing in raw material extraction and processing to cater to IRA-related requirements.
Along with the investment, GM and Mitra are establishing a partnership where Mitra Chem will develop iron-based cathode active materials (CAM) like lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) to power affordable and accessible EV batteries compatible with GM’s EV propulsion architecture, the Ultium Platform.
“This is a strategic investment that will further help reinforce GM’s efforts in EV batteries, accelerate our work on affordable battery chemistries like LMFP and support our efforts to build a North America-focused battery supply chain,” said Gil Golan, GM vice president, Technology Acceleration
The company had recently entered into a $1 billion Joint Venture with South Korea’s POSCO Future M to expand the production capacity at their battery materials facility in North America. GM also acquired ALGOLiON, a company specializing in battery software for electric vehicles (EVs), for an undisclosed amount.
VC Funding activity for the energy storage sector was up 27%, in 1H 2023, with $3.8 billion in 43 deals compared to $3 billion in 48 deals in 1H 2022, according to Mercom’s recently released Mercom’s 1H And Q2 2023 Funding and M&A Report for Storage & Smart Grid.
