Battery Startup Lyten Raises $200 Million to Acquire Northvolt Assets

According to foreign media reports, Lyten, a California-based startup developing lithium-sulfur batteries, has raised $200 million from existing investors to acquire the assets of the bankrupt battery manufacturer Northvolt AB.

The company stated that this new funding will enable Lyten to acquire Northvolt's intellectual property related to energy storage systems. In addition, the company had previously announced its plan to acquire Northvolt's assembly plant in Poland and restart production. This funding may also be used for the company's further acquisition activities.

Image Source: Lyten

Investors in Lyten include venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab, the Luxembourg Future Fund, Stellantis, and FedEx Corp.

Keith Norman, Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer of Lyten, stated that the company is accelerating mergers and acquisitions to expand its presence in the European stationary energy storage and military drone markets. At the same time, the company is adjusting its strategy and will no longer produce battery cells solely for the U.S. market—slowing electric vehicle sales in the United States have forced companies to rethink their business models.

Norman stated, "We are expanding downstream in the battery industry chain to capture a larger market share in the automotive industry chain, and we have found that due to market challenges, some manufacturing assets may be sold at a discount below their value."

Norman did not disclose how much Lyten paid Northvolt for the intellectual property or the Polish factory. Northvolt originally invested about $200 million when the factory was built.

Lyten's strategic shift has triggered cost cuts and restructuring. According to The Information, last week, Celina Mikolajczak, a former Tesla executive who had been leading the commercialization of Lyten's proprietary lithium-sulfur batteries, along with about 45 other employees, departed. Lyten also confirmed Mikolajczak's departure but declined to comment on the changes in employee numbers.

Mikolajczak said that during her tenure, Lyten successfully brought a battery chemistry that many considered “hopeless” to the commercialization stage, which she finds gratifying. She stated, “This is a tremendous achievement, and I am extremely proud to have been part of the team that made it happen.”

Norman explained the above personnel changes by saying, "The company is entering a stage of rapid growth, focusing on some very specific markets and regions, so it is necessary to ensure that the company's resources are aligned with these opportunities."

Lyten will restart production at its factory in Gdansk, Poland, which ceased operations in the first quarter of this year. Before the shutdown, this production center mainly manufactured energy storage products, including enclosures, wiring, inverters, control and safety systems, and other components. The resumption of production will utilize traditional nickel-based cells already produced by Northvolt. The company plans to resume delivering products to customers from this factory in the fourth quarter of this year.

However, in the long term, Lyten plans to transform the factory into its proprietary lithium-sulfur battery production base. The company claims that lithium-sulfur battery production costs are lower and do not rely on key raw materials dominated by China. The company also believes that its lithium-sulfur cells can compete with China's dominant lithium iron phosphate batteries in the energy storage market in terms of price and energy density.

Last year, Lyten also acquired a lithium metal manufacturing plant near San Francisco, which originally belonged to Cuberg. Cuberg is a startup company that was acquired by Northvolt in 2021.