Enovix Corporation has secured $45 million in new funds to produce and commercialize its 3D Silicon Lithium-ion Battery. The funding sources include a major new strategic investor, current investors (including T. J. Rodgers and York Capital), and non-dilutive funding from market-leading customers.

Enovix has developed a lithium-ion battery that incorporates a 100% active silicon anode using a patented 3D cell architecture to increase energy density and maintain high cycle life.

The patented 3D cell architecture vertically stacks high-capacity silicon anodes, cathodes, and separators in an inherently flat structure. Unlike the horizontally wound structure of a conventional lithium-ion cell, 3D architecture allows for an integrated stainless-steel constraint to apply stack pressure and maintain silicon particle connection for uniform discharge. The result is both a significant increase in energy density and high cycle life. Source: Enovix.

Enovix replaces electrode winding in a standard pouch lithium-ion battery production process with proprietary laser patterning and high-speed stacking tools to increase line MWh capacity by 30%.

Enovix will use the bulk of the funds to complete its Fremont, California high-volume battery production facility, where about 75% of the equipment and processes are identical to standard pouch lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

We initially attracted customers when we sampled cells about a year ago with energy density over 900 Wh/l and full-depth of discharge cycle life over 500. As customers and investors visited our production site and saw our proprietary electrode laser patterning and high-speed stacking tools in action, their confidence in our production capability was sufficient to generate revenue and secure additional funding.

—Harrold Rust, Enovix co-founder and CEO

The facility is expected to produce batteries for delivery in late 2020 and to reach a run-rate of 8 million units per year as it ramps in 2021 and 2022.

Enovix has also signed new agreements with two additional portable electronics companies. The company now has agreements with four category leading customers to develop and produce silicon-anode lithium-ion batteries for portable electronic devices, worth an anticipated $250 million in annual revenue once fully ramped.

Based on successfully deploying 3D Silicon Lithium-ion Battery technology in portable electronic devices, Enovix is now working with leading international automobile manufacturers to develop its patented battery technology for the electric vehicle (EV) market.

Initial R&D indicates that cells can achieve gravimetric energy density greater than 340 Wh/kg at a cost equivalent to or below present industry forecasts. Enovix expects to supply the EV market within 5 years.

The company is backed by strategic relationships with Intel, Qualcomm and Cypress and more than $200 million in venture, strategic and private funding. It has been awarded more than 70 patents and has more than 40 applications pending.