Anthro Energy, a provider of lithium-based battery solutions, announced the closing of an over-subscribed $20 million Series A funding round.
Collaborative Fund led the financing, with significant participation from existing investors, including Union Square Ventures, Emerson Collective, and Voyager Ventures. Energy Revolution Ventures, Ultratech Capital Partners, Nor’easter Ventures, and Overlap Holdings also participated in the round.
The funds gathered will be used to establish a Bay Area-based pilot production facility to commercialize and scale their battery technologies.
The company also announced its completion of UN 38.3 battery certification, a test method, and procedures established by the UN to ensure the global safety standard for transporting lithium batteries.
Modern Lithium-ion batteries face the inherent challenge of an increased number of battery fires. Anthro aims to address this by developing a scalable technology that solves the trade-off between energy density and safety in today’s batteries.
According to Anthro, its key innovation is its non-volatile and mechanically tunable polymer electrolyte. The company’s proprietary polymer replaces the highly flammable liquid electrolyte in conventional lithium-ion batteries.
“Our polymer electrolyte provides an unprecedented combination of performance, safety, and mechanical integrity,” said Anthro CTO Joe Papp, Ph.D. “By replacing conventional liquid electrolytes with our polymer, we can enable new battery form factors and battery chemistries that can facilitate broader electrification efforts across our economy.”
Sion Power Corporation, a developer of batteries for electric vehicles, secured $75 million in Series A funding. The round was led by LG Energy Solution (the investment to be executed through LG Technology Ventures and Bricks Capital Management) and repeat participation from mathematician Jim Simons’ Euclidean Capital. The company also secured new investment from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Hillspire.
According to Mercom’s Annual and Q4 2023 Funding and M&A Report for Storage & Smart Grid, Venture capital (VC/PE) funding in Energy Storage in 2023 was the highest ever recorded, increasing 59% year-over-year (YoY), with $9.2 billion in 86 deals compared to the $5.8 billion raised in 96 deals in 2022.
