Any advancements in battery technology is slow going. Between the time and money it takes to get the technology off the ground, startups in this area have a long road to tread.
Today, it looks like battery startup Seeo is getting a bit more time with a $17 million Series E investment. Samsung Ventures took the lead in the investment. Existing investors Khosla Ventures and GSR Ventures also contributed to the round.
The Hayward, CA battery startup claims it is making a lithium-ion battery that's less flammable and more efficient than traditional batteries. The main advancement behind the battery is that it uses a solid polymer as the electrolyte--which is the substance used to move lithium ions back and forth between the cathode and the anode for storing energy. Normal lithium-ion batteries use a flammable liquid as its electrolyte solution.
Seeo also claims a much higher efficiency over traditional lithium-ion batteries with its nonflammable polymer battery technology. With its current batteries, Seeo says it can achieve 350 Watt-hour per kilogram, but is looking to reach 400 Wh/kg by next year. For comparison, the batteries in Tesla's Model S have a reported energy density of 240 Wh/kg. That means Seeo technology could potentialy nearly double the range of Tesla Model S' 300 miles range per charge.
The $17 million investment will be used to improve Seeo's manufacturing facility in Hayward and start working on its 400 Wh/kg battery. It hopes to have this next generation battery ready in quarter three of next year, said Seeo CEO Hal Zarem in a phone call last week.
For Samsung's part, the South Korean electronics giant is a big player in the battery business as both a manufacturer and a user. Seeo's CEO said this lead investment from Samsung will help the startup get access to some of Samsung's manufacturing expertise and capabilities.
Seeo is targeting its batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles and stationary energy storage. The startup claims it's still in the process of testing out its technology and is working with a few car makers trying out the batteries. It completed a demonstration project with solar company SunEdison last year.
Seeo isn't disclosing its total venture capital it has raised, but this Series E is its largest investment round to date.
Founded back in 2007 out of research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Seeo has been at this for a while. For such a capital intensive endeavor, it can take some time before a startup begins seeing any progress. Seeo is constantly at the mercy of car manufacturers or other partners. And being an untested small supplier for these large players is hardly an ideal place to be in as a startup. These giants view startups as potentially risky that could cost them lots of money if they prove to be unreliable.
So, Seeo is waiting right now for these big guys to say yes. The process can take three to four years, said Ulrik Grape, SEEO’s vice president of sales and marketing.
“You have to be in it for the long hull,” said CEO Hal Zarem. “You have to partner with suppliers that are known and trusted in the automative industry to ramp up to big volumes. In some cases in the past, excess capacity was just sitting there. Look at what was happening to the battery industry in the earlier part of the decade. You had a lot companies building factories and who had the capacity but the demand wasn't there.”
Zarem thinks the demand is there for these kinds of batteries this time. Electric vehicle batteries have been a hot topic this past year. Billionaire Elon Musk has been busy working out the details for a gigantic lithium-ion battery factory in Nevada to supply his Tesla cars.
“Innovating at the materials level is really hard. That's why it's slow going,” said Zarem. "Every so often something gets through."
