Allotrope Energy, a startup developing ultra-fast charging batteries, announced that it had received $6.7 million in funding from Suzano Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of Suzano.
The investment marks the first of Suzano’s $70 million (£56.3 million) corporate venture capital fund launched last year. The new funds will help Allotrope Energy accelerate the development and commercialization of its battery technology that can charge in minutes and use carbon extracted from a renewable biomaterial.
“This significant investment is the pivotal step in demonstrating the immense opportunity in combining Suzano’s sustainable, natural resource and Allotrope’s agile high-rate carbon technology,” said Dr. Peter Wilson, CEO of Allotrope Energy.
“Working with Suzano, we get access to a critical raw material that is sustainably produced, alongside the commercial and technical expertise and global reach from working with a major multinational business.
The Surrey-based energy startup Allotrope has developed a new form of fast-charging batteries from tree batteries for use across the mobility, aerospace, and robotics industries. The company claims its fast-charging product can reach full energy capacity in the time it takes to fuel a combustion engine. The company’s battery technology is made using carbon extracted from pulp from trees. The company says its batteries do not require rare materials like cobalt and nickel.
Allotrope sources the required materials from Suzano, a hardwood pulp producer – based in Brazil.
“At Suzano Ventures, our focus is on finding deep tech startups that can build a circular and regenerative economy through the innovative production and use of biomaterials,” said Paula Puzzi, manager of Suzano Ventures. “We are excited that our first investment is into a company that can harness a co-product from our pulp production process as a key raw material to help accelerate the global transition to zero-emission mobility.”
According to Mercom’s Q1 2023 Funding and M&A Report for Storage and Smart Grid. VC funding (including private equity and corporate venture capital) raised by Energy Storage companies in Q1 2023 came to $1.1 billion in 19 deals, an 8% decrease year-over-year (YoY) compared to $1.2 billion in 22 deals in Q1 2022.
