Sila, a battery technology startup previously known as Sila Nanotechnologies, has successfully raised $375 million in a Series G round to complete the construction of its U.S. factory in Moses Lake, Washington. The factory, scheduled for completion in Q1 2023, will mass produce Sila’s Titan Silicon anode material. This funding round, led by Sutter Hill Ventures, comes amidst a challenging market for electric vehicle battery companies, with some companies like Ionic Materials, Umicore, and Freyr Battery facing difficulties in getting products to market and staying afloat.
Sila’s technology aims to revolutionize the lithium-ion battery industry by replacing graphite in the anode with silicon. This change offers several advantages, including a more local supply chain for critical battery materials, a denser, cheaper battery cell, and faster charging times. The anode, a key component of a battery, stores lithium during charging, while the cathode stores lithium during discharge. The lithium moves between charge and discharge through an electrolyte liquid, and a separator prevents short-circuiting.
Sila’s Titan Silicon anode material, currently in use in test vehicles, offers a 20% to 25% increase in energy density. The company expects this to increase to around 40% in the future without any other changes to the battery. The Moses Lake facility, once completed, will provide the scale and manufacturing standard for automotive series production, allowing Sila to supply its technology to major automakers like Mercedes-Benz and Panasonic. Sila’s technology is set to be used in the Mercedes electric G-Wagon, which recently launched in Beijing, and Panasonic, a significant manufacturer of EV batteries for various automakers including Tesla.
The Moses Lake facility, with potential future expansions, is large enough to produce enough Titan Silicon for over a million vehicles. Sila, which made its commercial debut in 2021 with Whoop wearables, plans to announce more automotive and consumer electronics customers in the future. The success of this funding round is seen as a vote of confidence for Sila’s approach to battery chemistry and its ability to scale production.
