London-based Gaussion, a spin-out from University College London (UCL), has secured $12 million in Series A funding. Previously, the ultrafast and safe battery charging startup raised £2.85 million in seed funding last year.
The round was led by Autotech Ventures (which invested in Bumper and Laka), with participation from existing investors UCL Technology Fund and BGF, the largest and most active growth capital investor in the UK and Ireland, which backed Kooth and PureCyber.
The infusion of capital will enable Gaussion’s market entry which includes producing and selling its products and potentially licensing its technology for other applications.
What change does it bring?
Charging speed remains a significant hurdle to overcome in the mass market adoption of passenger and commercial electric vehicles (EVs). Rapid charging under traditional electrochemistry is inherently unpredictable, often dangerously damaging cells and next-generation technologies such as solid-state electrolytes have repeatedly fallen short of deployment targets.
Gaussion, a University College London (UCL) spinoff, has developed a novel solution to tackle this challenge.
What does the company do?
Gaussion was founded by Dr. Tom Heenan and Dr. Tan back in 2017 to revolutionise the battery industry. The company offers a viable and scalable solution to meet the growing demand for more efficient and powerful energy storage systems.
Its rapid charging tech enhances battery performance using an external magnetic field during charge and discharge cycles to enable rapid charging by steering ions within existing battery cells. The magnetic field also lowers cell degradation, extending battery life.
As per the company, Gaussion’s technology can unlock truly rapid charging on existing commercially available battery cells. The team has taken commercial cells designed to charge in 1-5 hours and demonstrated 1,000+ cycles of consecutive 10-minute charging while still meeting all warranty specifications.
It is useful across a range of applications, including transportation electrification, construction equipment, mining operations, residential energy storage, and utility-scale energy storage for load and phase balancing.
“In many applications, we are observing that efforts to rapidly electrify are delayed or blocked due to the cost of raising the ceiling of battery performance,” said Tom Heenan, Gaussion CEO and co-founder. “Whereas magnetic enhancement could provide step-change improvements across all chemistries, formats, and applications, affordably unlocking electrification without compromising on cost or performance.”
Investors’ views
“Gaussion’s approach aims to expand the solution space by introducing a new variable, rather than displacing or replacing existing technologies,” said Alexei Andreev, co-founder and managing director of Autotech Ventures. “They leverage the advancements of current battery cell giants and apply an external magnetic field to enhance the performance of established battery technologies without changing their core components. We see tremendous opportunities in a variety of markets.”
Dennis Atkinson, investor at BGF, commented: “Gaussion is an innovative business that has developed a unique solution to one of the most pressing issues in the EV battery space. The strong progress so far, led by an exceptional team, highlights the potential of their technology and we are excited to have Autotech now join the journey.”
David Grimm, Partner UCL Technology Fund said, “Slow charging speed and battery degradation are currently limiting the wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles and the broader energy transition. Dr. Tom Heenan and Dr. Chun Tan, co-founders of Gaussion, have managed to solve this problem by building an innovative solution from their university labs into a scaling company. Gaussion’s commercial application taps into a huge market need and we look forward to continuing to support them on their journey.”
What do we think about Gaussion?
The company is poised to disrupt the battery charging landscape with its innovative magnetic field technology, enabling ultra-fast charging without compromising battery health. By addressing the critical challenges of charging speed and cell degradation, Gaussion’s solution holds the potential to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and energy storage systems across various industries. As it scales, it could become a key player in driving the global shift towards electrification.
