Dutch battery manufacturer LeydenJar lands €30 million in European financing

Dutch battery company LeydenJar has secured the funding to build its first factory to produce silicon anode foil. The company will invest €60 million in the construction of its first production facility, called “Plant One”. Half of this sum comes from a European Investment Bank loan facility. InnovFin Energy – funded by the EU’s research & innovation framework program – is supporting the investment, writes the company in a press release.

The rest of the financing comes from LeydenJar’s client projects, earlier committed grants, and the Series A investment round in 2021. Noord-Brabant region will be home to the factory, which should be fully operational by 2026. The aim of the plant is to prepare the silicon anode foil for mass production, subsequently bringing down the cost.

Industrialization

Founder and CEO of LeydenJar Christian Rood, commented: “Building an anode factory in the Netherlands is a very rare feat. We are very happy that, together with our clients, we will now scale our unique technology. We work with big players in the consumer electronics and automotive industries and Plant One will allow us to integrate our production platform with giga-factories. The end goal is to become the world’s best producer of silicon anodes, to produce batteries with the highest energy density in the world.”

In 2021, LeydenJar already obtained €22 million in funding, and now the EU-backed €30 million loan from the EIB will support the company’s industrialization. By funding the installation and operation of machines for the production of LeydenJar’s proven technology concept, the company will demonstrate serial production at scale, opening up a wide range of possibilities in different sectors.

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Higher energy density

The company’s new silicon anode technology enables significantly increased energy density in lithium-ion batteries, which in turn makes batteries smaller and more powerful and opens up new possibilities for e-vehicles. LeydenJar has demonstrated the production of its anode material at promising specifications at the pilot plant scale. Now, the EIB’s financing will help it to develop and install a set of larger machines to demonstrate the first-of-its-kind production of the anode material at an industrial scale.

“The possibilities with this new step in battery technology are endless,” added EIB vice-president Kris Peeters. “In the fight against climate change, renewable energy, and energy efficiency alone are not going to cut it. One, often overlooked, area, where huge gains can still be made, is the innovation of critical technology. LeydenJar has taken up that gauntlet and the EIB is very proud to support this scaling up of very promising technology.”

Emissions cutting

LeydenJar’s innovative silicon anode foil allows batteries to store 70 percent more energy than the currently common graphite anode foil while being extremely thin. The company is working with partners to apply the technology in next-generation consumer electronics, electronic vehicles, and e-flight applications. Importantly from an environmental point of view, the application also reduces CO₂ emissions of anode production by 85 percent.