The sum will further develop the firm’s Blyth gigafactory and expand its research and development capabilities
Battery manufacturing start-up Britishvolt has secured a £40 million investment from mining firm Glencore shortly after the two firms announced they would jointly open a battery recycling centre.
The £40m investment precedes a larger fundraising effort in which Britishvolt will aim to secure a further £200m. This round of funding will be led by the Bank of America, Citibank and Peel Hunt.
The funding will be used to further develop the firm’s Blyth gigafactory and expand its research and development capabilities with an additional facility.
Britishvolt says the factory will build enough cells to supply 300,000 battery packs for the automotive industry each year by 2028.
Kasra Pezeshki, Britishvolt chief investment officer, said: “Following on from the hugely positive news of government backing for our first full-scale gigaplant, and having secured £1.7 billion of private capital for construction of the shell and core, Britishvolt will now open its Series C fundraise.
“We are increasingly excited by the number of potential growth and investment opportunities available to the business. Our interactions with the capital markets, and customers, show that demand for low-carbon, responsibly manufactured batteries is rapidly growing day by day.”
Glencore’s investment further strengthens the firm’s relationship with Britishvolt. The FTSE 100-listed company agreed last month that it would collaborate with the battery firm to open a new recycling plant by mid-2023 near Northfleet in Kent.
The recycling plant will be based at Glencore’s Britannia Refined Metals facility, formerly the country’s largest coal-fired power station. It is expected to process more than 10,000 tonnes of lithium ion batteries each year, as well as manufacturing scrap from Blyth.
Britishvolt received £1.7bn in funding from investment firms Trixtax and Abrdn earlier this year, as well as £100m from the UK government’s Automotive Transformation fund.
Keyword: Britishvolt secures £40 million gigafactory funding from Glencore