A Chicago materials startup working to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries just landed funding from a pair of climate-focused VC firms.
Volexion, founded by Northwestern professor Mark Hersam, raised $1.1 million Thursday from Boston's Clean Energy Ventures and Chicago-based Energy Foundry. The funding is part of a $2.2 million round Volexion is working to raise.
Launched in 2018, Volexion is developing a graphene coating for lithium-ion batteries. Its technology acts as a protective layer around battery cathode materials to keep them from degrading and allows them to last longer. The startup says its graphene coating can provide batteries with a 40% increase in power density and help them run twice as long as conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Volexion said its coating can integrate directly into any manufacturer’s existing battery processes. The startup's technology has applications for consumer electronics, grid storage and electric vehicles, and it currently has nine collaboration agreements in place with battery producers and automotive equipment manufacturers.
Volexion has been developing its technology at Argonne National Laboratory, and has received backing from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
"We believe Volexion’s innovation will accelerate the performance improvements of lithium-ion batteries by as much as 10 years and enable the additional reduction of over 2.5 billion tons of CO2e by 2050 through the more rapid adoption of electric vehicles," David Miller, managing director and co-founder of Clean Energy Ventures, said in a statement.
