US battery materials company raises nearly 10 billion to create next-generation negative electrode materials

Sila, a battery materials start-up company in the United States, successfully raised US$375 million, approximately RMB 2.7 billion, in Series G financing. So far, Sila has received more than 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in investment, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Samsung. Sila was founded in 2011 and focuses on the development of silicon-based anode materials for lithium batteries. This material has higher energy density, faster charging speed and better efficiency, and is considered the leader in the next generation of lithium-ion battery anode materials. However, silicon-based anode materials also have some shortcomings, such as large volume expansion, poor conductivity, and low lithium ion diffusion coefficient, which limit their wide application in the market. In order to solve these problems, Sila launched a new nanocomposite silicon material called "Titan Silicon" in April 2023. Sila said that Titan silicon is a market-proven, safe and clean mass-produced all-graphite anode alternative material that can be used in electric vehicle batteries and significantly improve their performance. According to Sila, the performance of Titan silicon batteries is 20%-25% higher than the best-performing graphite batteries in the industry. In the future, Titan silicon is expected to further improve battery performance, shorten charging time and reduce costs. Sila plans to use these funds to build its factory in Moses Lake, Washington, ensuring that the factory is completed in the first quarter of 2025 and begins delivering Titan silicon anode materials to customers in the fourth quarter of 2025. The company plans to produce enough material to power 1 million electric vehicles within the next five years. In 2022, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would become the first automotive customer of the Sila Moses Lake plant and plans to use Titan silicon anode materials on its G-class electric vehicles starting in 2025. At the end of last year, Sila also reached an agreement with Panasonic Energy to supply Titan silicon anode materials. In addition to Mercedes-Benz and Panasonic Energy, Sila has three yet to be publicly disclosed customer contracts that will be fulfilled by Sila's Moses Lake plant.