Fast-charging battery firm Nyobolt raises $30 million for expansion

By Nick Carey

LONDON (Reuters) - UK fast-charging battery technology company Nyobolt has raised $30 million to expand its business in autonomous warehouse robots and heavy duty vehicles and move into new markets including mainstream electric vehicles, it said on Wednesday.

The latest fundraising was led by venture capital firms IQ Capital and Latitude and included Scania Invest, the venture capital arm of Scania, Volkswagen's truckmaking business.

The latest funding brings the total Nyobolt has raised to $100 million.

CEO Sai Shivareddy told Reuters that so far Nyobolt, based in Cambridge, England, has focused on energy storage systems, but in particular and autonomous robots that operate in e-commerce warehouses around the clock that require ultra-fast charging because they have almost no downtime.

"We've been focused on this market because there's pretty much no competition," Shivareddy said.

Last year in a track test Nyobolt successfully charged an EV to 80% from 10% in less than five minutes. The company has had talks with eight major automakers over the past 12 months about using its battery technology - which relies on a graphite anode for fast charging and high energy density - in their EV platforms, Shivareddy said.

"This is totally possible for mainstream, high-volume models within the next three to five years," he said. "We stand uniquely positioned to partner with anybody and everybody who wants to build these systems at scale."

Fast-charging EV platforms have come into sharper focus recently after No. 1 Chinese automaker BYD unveiled a new platform it said could charge EVs as quickly as it takes to fill up a fossil-fuel car.

Shivareddy said Nyobolt will not build batteries at scale itself, but aims to license out its technology to major battery makers.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Susan Fenton)