Customcells – German battery pioneer completes Series A financing round: 60 million euros for custom cells.
Customcells aims to be a leader in the global premium battery market. The company has now successfully completed a Series A financing round and raised a total of 60 million euros: Europe’s leading climate tech venture capitalist World Fund is the lead investor together with the Hamburg family office Abacon Capital .
Customcells intends to use the money to expand its activities in the electrification of air traffic, intensify research and development work and promote internationalization.
Dirk Abendroth, CEO of the Customcells Group since May 2022.
Our goal is to create and shape a new premium segment in the international market for battery cells.
“This includes a next generation of battery cells that are developed and produced tailor-made to the needs of our customers. Customcells should become a global player – an independent, large premium brand in the global battery cell business.”
The existing investor Vsquared Ventures has once again increased its stake in the company. With Porsche , a second existing investor participated in the financing round. The seed investor 468 Capital , who believed in Customcells’ ideas early on, will remain involved in the company in the future, as will Primepulse .
Customcells founders Leopold König and Torge Thönnessen remain the company’s largest shareholders even after the funding.
Daria Saharova, co-founder of the World Fund:
Energy storage is the crucial technology for the further expansion of renewable energies and thus for the further decarbonization of the global economy.
“Customcells has the opportunity to enable the disruption of aviation and thus quickly decarbonize the entire industry.”
The World Fund only invests in companies with climate technologies that have the potential to save at least 100 million tons of CO2e per year. To this end, the venture capitalist has developed its own methodology called Climate Performance Potential, or CPP for short.
Tobias Krauss, CEO of Abacon Capital, said:
The electrification of our economy is just beginning and is driving the transformation of the three largest markets in the world – energy, buildings and mobility.
“Energy storage is the crucial link.”
“Customcells is uniquely positioned for this and delights its customers as a reliable partner.”
Customcells – with locations in Itzehoe and Tübingen – is a spin-off of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and has been active in the development and series production of state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery cells for more than ten years. The company works along the entire value chain from development to certification and series production to recycling.
Among other things, Customcells wants to use the investor funds to expand its position in the electrification of aviation more quickly and create competitive advantages for itself through a First2Market approach.
These include significantly more powerful battery cells compared to the competition and certifications from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The company intends to further push its technological lead with the help of significantly increased research and development activities. Specifically, a total of 50 patents will be registered in 2022, and they are to be significantly expanded in the years to come.
Herbert Mangesius, partner at Vsquared venture, said:
Our fund stands for the industrialization of next-gen technologies, and custom cells are currently developing the next generation of cell technology.
“With ten years of know-how and numerous patents, the company is ideally positioned to be the market leader here,”
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German battery pioneer completes Series A financing round: 60 million euros for custom cells, December 6, 2022
