Umicore invests in battery maker Blue Current
Blue Current, a silicon elastic composite solid-state battery manufacturer, has a new investor on board. Umicore is investing a minority stake in the US-based start-up.
The two companies signed a joint development agreement about a year ago. It allows Blue Current to use Umicore battery materials for its solid-state battery technology. Now, the two companies want to drive market adoption of Blue Current’s silicon elastic composite battery towards the mid-decade.
“Umicore is looking forward to taking the next step in our collaboration with Blue Current on solid-state battery technologies and build on the first promising outcome during a year of joint research,” says Stéphane Levasseur, Senior Innovation Director New Business Incubation at Umicore.
With the investment, Umicore steps up its development of sold-state battery technology, which, according to the company, “will have a number of benefits compared to current lithium-ion battery technologies with liquid electrolytes. Their composite electrolytes and silicon anodes allow for electric vehicle (EV) designers to create smaller, lighter, and lower-cost battery packs with greater safety at the cell level and higher energy density at the cell and system level.”
Blue Current was founded in 2015 to commercialise their non-flammable electrolytes for Li-ion batteries.
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