Battery technology company charges up with Finance Yorkshire funding
BATTERY technology company Faradion is set to scale up its activities following further investment from Finance Yorkshire.
Faradion, based at the Kroto Innovation Centre, was founded to develop low-cost, sodium-ion battery technology capable of reducing the cost of energy storage in a range of applications related to renewable energy, stationary storage and transportation.
Finance Yorkshire has made a follow on investment, which was undisclosed, in the company from its Seedcorn Fund after its first investment in Faradion three years ago.
This latest round of funding also includes investment from Haldor Topsøe A/S, a global market leader in catalysis and related process technologies.
Faradion’s technology enables the replacement of lithium in lithium-ion batteries with the more commonly available, sustainable and much less expensive metal sodium without impacting adversely on any of the key performance characteristics of current large scale batteries.
Chris Wright, chief executive at Faradion, said: “This latest investment from Finance Yorkshire marks a significant contribution to enabling us to further develop our technology as well as scale up production of our next-generation battery materials.
“Future users of our technology will be able to secure high quality materials in commercial volumes at competitive prices.”
Ashwin Kumaraswamy, investment director at Finance Yorkshire, said: “We were the founding investors in Faradion and we are delighted to be making this follow on investment in a company which has developed so strongly since its launch.
“Haldor Topsøe’s involvement further strengthens our investment philosophy of backing quality management teams to address large but specific market requirements. The investment will enable Faradion to gain customer traction by licensing its technology in the very near future.”
