- Gaussion, a battery startup based in London, has raised $28 million, bringing its total funding to more than $44 million. The company plans to use this investment to expand its magnetic charging technology, which can be used with any lithium-ion battery without changing its chemistry or design.
- The funding round includes investment from Steve Jurvetson’s Future Ventures, which is known for backing SpaceX and Tesla in their early days. Jurvetson is now the second early Tesla investor to support this UCL spinout.
- With AI data centres, electric vehicles, and autonomous systems putting more pressure on the global power supply, Gaussion argues that batteries are now the main bottleneck holding back technology.
Most people focus on chip shortages, rising semiconductor values, and the race for more computing power. Gaussion sees things differently, saying these advances do not matter if battery technology cannot keep up. The company has raised $28 million to tackle this problem.
Gaussion was founded in 2022 as a spinout from University College London and the Faraday Institution. The company develops technology that uses an external magnetic field to charge lithium-ion batteries faster and extend their lifespan. Co-founders Dr Tom Heenan and Dr Chun Tan first came up with the idea in 2017 at UCL’s Electrochemical Innovation Lab.
Gaussion is based in London and had about 19 employees as of June 2025, according to PitchBook.
“The race everyone’s watching is about computer chips — but the real prize is the battery. The battery decides whether the giant computers behind AI can keep running. Whether a drone can stay in the sky. Whether a satellite survives out in space. Every battery faces a physics ceiling, and we move that ceiling,” says Heenan.
Why the battery is the overlooked bottleneck
Most companies in the battery industry focus on cell chemistry, trying to build better batteries from scratch. Gaussion does things differently by using an external magnetic field on existing lithium-ion batteries. This allows for faster charging and a longer lifespan without changing the battery’s chemistry or design.
Gaussion has two main products: MagLiB, a magnetic printed circuit board that can be added to existing battery packs, and Aeon, a special control chip and software platform. Together, they create a smart control layer inside the battery pack.
This setup allows for fast EV charging, longer drone flights, and better power management in data centres, all without changing the battery itself. Gaussion backs its approach with 66 patent applications in 17 families and 14 active commercial programs with manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, grid storage, and consumer electronics.
The global battery management system market was worth $9.97 billion in 2026 and is expected to reach $17.86 billion by 2030, growing at an annual rate of 15.7%. The main drivers are AI infrastructure, electric vehicle adoption, and grid-scale storage.
How it stacks up against the competition
Battery intelligence and management is a crowded field. Brill Power, an Oxford University spinout and one of Gaussian’s main UK competitors, was acquired by Palmer Energy Technology in August 2025, indicating that the sector is consolidating.
In the US, Nuvation Energy supplies grid-scale battery management systems and has shipped technology supporting over 1 GWh of energy storage worldwide, but it operates without outside venture funding.
While these companies focus on specific applications or customers, Gaussian’s retrofit approach covers the entire lithium-ion stack, from phones to drones to data centres, giving it a broader commercial reach.
In October 2025, Gaussion moved to a new 40,000-square-foot facility in central London, which it says is one of the largest battery R&D sites in Europe.
The investors and what they’re backing
The $28 million funding round was co-led by BGF and AlbionVC, with more support from Autotech Ventures, UCL Technology Fund, DN Capital, and Future Ventures.
Future Ventures, led by Steve Jurvetson, an early investor in SpaceX and Tesla, joins as a new backer. Jurvetson is now the second early Tesla investor involved with Gaussion, as board member Simon Rothman also supported Tesla in its early days.
The deal also pushed BGF past £5 billion invested in UK and Irish businesses since 2011. Dennis Atkinson, co-head of early stage at BGF, says the company had made “huge strides in a short space of time to validate its technology, scale operations and increase commercial traction,” adding that it possesses “a truly differentiated offering, underpinned by an incredibly versatile product, with the potential to address a fundamental performance and cost issue in battery systems.”
Sebastian Hunte, investment director at AlbionVC, notes, “Gaussion has created a new layer in the battery stack: a magnetic intelligence layer that dramatically lifts performance across any chemistry or format. It is a rare opportunity to back a company that touches the entire battery lifecycle, from gigafactory formation to deployment.”
Gaussion will use the fresh funds to expand commercial deployment of MagLi and Aeon in automotive, aerospace, data centres, and consumer electronics. With this round, the company has now raised more than $44 million since its founding.
This funding round raises a broader question: Will the intelligence layer between a battery cell and the systems it powers become as strategically important as the cell itself? Given Jurvetson’s track record, it appears that a decisive bet has already been made.
