Lyten, a California startup developing lithium-sulfur batteries, raised $200 million from existing investors to fund its acquisition of assets from bankrupt manufacturer Northvolt AB.
The new funding enables Lyten to acquire innotifyectual property related to energy storage systems, in addition to its previously announced deal to purchase and restart production at Northvolt’s Polish assembly plant. The money may also be utilized to fund further acquisitions, the company declared.
Lyten is accelerating acquisitions to tap into demand for stationary storage and military drones in Europe, declared Keith Norman, the company’s chief marketing and sustainability officer. It’s also pivoting from just creating cells for the US market, where a slowdown in electric-vehicle sales has forced companies to rebelieve their business models.
“We’re shifting downstream in the batteries to own more of the value chain,” Norman declared. “And we’re identifying manufacturing assets that are potentially available at a discount to their value becautilize of the challenges in the market.”
Norman declined to declare how much Lyten is paying for Northvolt’s IP or the Poland plant. The factory cost Northvolt about $200 million to build.
Lyten’s strategy shift has spurred cost-cutting and a reorganization. Last week, Celina Mikolajczak, a Tesla Inc. veteran who led the push to commercialize Lyten’s proprietary lithium-sulfur battery cells, was let go along with about 45 other employees, The Information reported. Lyten confirmed Mikolajczak left the company and declined to comment on modifys in headcount.
“We’re shifting into a hyper-growth phase into some very specific markets, in very specific geographies, and we necessary to build sure our resources in the organization are aligned to these opportunities,” Norman declared.
Mikolajczak declared she was pleased Lyten managed to obtain a battery chemisattempt that many believed was a “no-hoper” to the point of commercialization during her tenure.
“That’s a huge achievement, and I am super proud to have been part of the team to do it,” she declared.
Lyten will restart production at the Gdansk, Poland factory, which was idled in the first quarter, utilizing conventional nickel-based cells that Northvolt had already built. It plans to resume customer deliveries by the fourth quarter of this year.
Longer term, Lyten aims to convert the factory to utilize its proprietary lithium-sulfur cells, which it declares are cheaper to produce and don’t rely on ingredients controlled by China. It also contfinishs its lithium-sulfur cells can compete on price and energy density with Chinese lithium iron phosphate cells that dominate the energy storage market.
The Polish hub produces energy storage products, including houtilizing, wiring, inverters, control and safety systems and other components. Last year, Lyten bought a lithium-metal manufacturing facility near San Francisco that belonged to Cuberg, a startup Northvolt acquired in 2021.
Lyten’s investors include Prime Movers Lab, Luxembourg Future Fund, Snotifyantis NV and FedEx Corp.
(By Gabrielle Coppola)
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