Gaussion, a University College London (UCL) spinoff, has raised $12 million for its fast-charging battery tech.
The company’s solution enhances battery performance using an external magnetic field during charge and discharge cycles to enable “rapid charging” by steering ions within existing battery cells.
The magnetic field also lowers cell degradation, extending battery life, Gaussion said.
The company’s technology has reportedly been demonstrated on commercial Li-ion cells to accelerate charging by up to 67 per cent. .
“In many applications, we are observing that efforts to rapidly electrify are delayed or blocked due to the cost of raising the ceiling of battery performance,” said Tom Heenan, Gaussion CEO and Co-Founder.
Magnetic enhancement, Heenan said, could provide “step-change improvements” across all chemistries, formats and applications, “affordably” unlocking electrification “without compromising on cost or performance.”
The Series A round was led by Autotech Ventures and supported by existing investors BGF and UCL Technology Fund, managed by AlbionVC in collaboration with UCL Business.
Gaussion said the capital would enable its market entry, which includes producing and selling its products and potentially licensing its technology for other applications.
“Gaussion’s approach aims to expand the solution space by introducing a new variable, rather than displacing or replacing existing technologies,” said Alexei Andreev, co-founder and managing director of Autotech Ventures. “They leverage the advancements of current battery cell giants and apply an external magnetic field to enhance the performance of established battery technologies without changing their core components. We see tremendous opportunities in a variety of markets.”
According to Gaussion, which has a global portfolio of patents and patent applications, the tech has a wide range of applications, including transportation electrification, construction equipment, mining operations, residential energy storage, and utility-scale energy storage for load and phase balancing.
David Grimm, Partner UCL Technology Fund, commented: “Slow charging speed and battery degradation are currently limiting the wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles and the broader energy transition.
“Dr. Tom Heenan and Dr. Chun Tan, co-founders of Gaussion, have managed to solve this problem by building an innovative solution from their university labs into a scaling company. Gaussion’s commercial application taps into a huge market need and we look forward to continuing to support them on their journey.”