Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese battery materials supplier Shenzhen Solid New Material Technology Co., Ltd. ("Solid") recently announced the completion of its Series A funding round, raising several hundred million yuan, according to the company's press release.
The round was led by four prominent state-owned institutions, including the Jiangxia Green Fund under Three Gorges Capital Holdings and the technology achievement transformation fund of Hunan Xingxiang Investment Holding Group. Existing investors, including TopoScend Capital and China Capital Management, also participated in the round. The funds will be primarily used for the R&D of high-performance lithium battery materials, production line construction, and working capital supplement.
Founded in November 2019, Solid specializes in the R&D, production, and sales of core materials for solid-state batteries. Its main products include innovative lithium battery materials such as silicon-carbon anode materials and solid electrolytes. Solid's silicon-based products encompass a full range of silicon-carbon and silicon-oxygen anode materials, which have already been shipped in bulk. Additionally, the company is actively developing materials compatible with semi-solid and all-solid-state battery systems for market introduction.
As demand for high-energy-density batteries continues to rise in the electric vehicle, consumer electronics, and low-altitude economy markets, the silicon-based anode materials industry is experiencing significant growth.
Anode materials are crucial for lithium-ion batteries, serving as carriers for lithium ions and electrons during charging, and playing a vital role in energy storage and release. Silicon-based anodes, represented by silicon-carbon and pure silicon, offer better specific capacity, fast-charging capabilities, and low-temperature performance compared to graphite, making them the clear direction for the next generation of lithium battery anode materials.
The primary technological approaches for silicon-based anode materials in the market include sand milling composite silicon-carbon, pre-lithiated silicon oxide, and silicon-carbon deposition, with Solid adopting the silicon-carbon deposition route. Although the future for silicon-based anodes is promising, challenges such as cost, volume expansion, conductivity, initial efficiency, and cycle performance still need to be addressed to enable large-scale commercial applications.
Solid has said that it has already overcome significant challenges in the application of silicon-carbon anodes, such as the large expansion and poor stability of silicon materials, laying the groundwork for large-scale application. The latest funding will accelerate the commercialization of its porous silicon-carbon technology. Solid has already commenced production of its silicon-carbon anode materials at a capacity of hundreds of tonnes and is planning to scale up to a thousand-tonne production line. The company has also established preliminary collaborations with several leading customers, and its pilot production line for tonne-scale solid electrolytes is currently undergoing supply testing.
