Porsche invests in battery material developer Group14
The aim of the Series D financing round is to accelerate the scaling and global delivery of SCC55, Group14’s silicon battery material. The financing round was led by South Korean conglomerate SK, which is also the parent company of battery manufacturer SK On. Existing investors such as Porsche Investments, TDK subsidiary ATL, OMERS, Decarbonization Partners, Lightrock Climate Impact Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and others also participated. A total of 463 million US dollars was raised, which is equivalent to around 397 million euros. Across all financing rounds, Group14 has now raised over 1 billion US dollars in equity.
A key component of the new deal is the complete acquisition of Group14’s joint venture with SK Materials in Sangju, South Korea. The battery materials factory there produces Group14’s flagship product, SCC55, and began shipping silicon anode material to customers in September 2024.
“This is a defining moment for Group14 and a clear signal that the future of high-performance energy storage, powered by our silicon battery material, is already here,” said Rick Luebbe, CEO and co-founder of Group14. “We’re strengthening regional battery supply chains and safeguarding our customers from global trade uncertainty.”
Group14 also has close ties to Germany: in 2022, Porsche joined as an investor in the Series C financing round at the time, contributing $100 million to the total $400 million capital injection. As part of this, Porsche also announced that Group14 would supply battery material to Porsche’s battery subsidiary Cellforce in the future. This was followed in 2023 by the acquisition of the German company Schmid Silicon, which operates a plant for the production of monosilane gas, an important precursor for Group14’s SCC55 silicon battery technology, in the Schwarze Pumpe industrial park on the border between Saxony and Brandenburg.
Just a few days ago, V4Smart, the Varta battery subsidiary acquired and renamed by Porsche, unveiled its second-generation battery cell. The cylindrical battery cell is set to be launched in two different versions and will contain the new anode material from Porsche subsidiary Group14. German battery cell manufacturer CustomCells signed a supply agreement with Group14 last year, but the company later went bankrupt. It is currently unknown whether Abacon, which later rescued CustomCells, intends to continue sourcing battery material from Group14.
Group14 also has another important partnership in Germany with chemical company BASF: In the spring, the two companies jointly presented a market-ready silicon anode solution designed to replace graphite in lithium-ion batteries. The solution combines BASF’s Licity 2698 X F binder with Group14’s advanced SCC55 silicon anode material.
This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.
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