Big-name funders back startups aimed at increasing battery lifecycles

The big battery innovation boom doesn’t just mean companies are discovering new ways of manufacturing batteries: It also includes startups figuring out how to make existing batteries last longer.

Two startups that increase the lifecycle of large-scale batteries each received more than $10 million in venture capital funding this month. Sonocharge Energy, which uses acoustics to make batteries last longer and charge quicker, secured $23.5 million from Honda and investors Cycle Capital, Temasek, and Khosla Ventures. And Moment Energy, a Canadian large-scale battery repurposer, got $15 million to build the world’s first second-life battery factory from the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures.

Both investments are tied to electric vehicles—Sonocharge Energy batteries can be used in EVs, and the batteries that Moment Energy recycles are from EVs—but have applications relevant to large-scale energy storage, too: Sonocharge batteries can help power data centers, and Moment Energy’s battery energy storage system can provide backup power for hospitals, remote communities, and manufacturing facilities.

“Sonocharge Energy is an exemplary case of how technology can facilitate electrification by improving performance and scale its deployment,” Andrée-Lise Méthot, Cycle Capital’s managing partner, said in a statement.

Moment Energy’s $15 million in funding comes on the heels of the company receiving more than $20 million from the Department of Energy to fund its second-life gigafactory, which will be built in Texas.

“Our mission to provide worldwide access to clean, affordable, and reliable power aligns perfectly with the DOE’s goals,” Moment Energy CEO Edward Chiang said after the Department’s funding was announced. “This facility will be instrumental in our commitment to enable all retired EV batteries to be repurposed by 2030.”