Lithium battery maker Boston-Power lands $60 million in funding
Lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power on Thursday announced $60 million in funding, with the hope that the investment will help it scale its products that store energy for plug-in electric cars and the smart grid.
The funding was led by current investors Foundation Asset Management and Oak Investment Partners, and includes Venrock and Gabriel Venture Partners.
The five-year-old Westborough, Mass.-based company will use the growth capital to scale manufacturing, sales, marketing and research and development for its next-generation technology platform for its Sonata and Swing battery systems.
The Sonata line is made for portable consumer electronics. (If you've used a "long-life" battery from computer maker Hewlett-Packard, you've used a Boston-Power Sonata Li-ion battery.)
The Swing line is intended for utility energy storage and plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles, such as the upcoming ZE Saab 9-3.
"Energy storage is the cornerstone of some of the most profound shifts in technology and society that we’ve seen in our lifetimes – ranging from the electrification of transportation and the reinvention of grid power to truly ubiquitous mobility," founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Önnerud said in a statement.
Still growing, the company has attracted $185 million in investment since its founding in 2005.
The attraction? Increasing global need for more, and more efficient, batteries for everything from portable electronics to electric vehicles to grid storage.
Illustration: Boston-Power patent No. 2008/0008928
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com