Climate Insider Brief:

• Sila has raised $375 million in its Series G round, led by Sutter Hill Ventures and T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from new and existing investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, and Perry Creek Capital.
• The funding will complete the Moses Lake plant by Q1 2025, with delivery of the Titan SiliconTM anode material to auto customers starting in Q4 2025. Customers include Mercedes-Benz, Panasonic, and three undisclosed companies.
• Titan Silicon, Sila’s high silicon anode technology, offers a 20-25% improvement in energy density over graphite cells, enhancing EV performance, range, and charge times. 

PRESS RELEASE – Alameda, CA / June 27, 2024 – Sila, a next-generation battery materials company, announces it has raised $375 million in a close of its Series G round led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., with participation by new outside investors as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Coatue, Perry Creek Capital, and others.

The funding will secure the completion of the company’s Moses Lake plant in Q1, 2025, enabling the delivery of its Titan SiliconTM anode material to auto customers in Q4, 2025. Mercedes-Benz and Panasonic, as well as three additional customer contracts yet to be publicly disclosed, have been secured and will be fulfilled through Sila’s Moses Lake manufacturing facility.

The new funding comes as Sila has already demonstrated technical differentiation and market adoption of Titan Silicon as a high silicon anode capable of replacing most or all of the graphite in a Li-ion cell. The round focuses on scale-up as well as ensuring that rigorous automotive quality and reliability standards and delivery timelines are met. The build-out of Sila’s Moses Lake manufacturing plant remains on schedule and will deliver enough capacity to serve its multiple customers. Additional future expansions at the site will enable Sila to produce enough material to power up to a million cars per year.

“Our investors share the perspective that the world will transition to fully electric,” said Gene Berdichevsky, Sila Co-founder and CEO. “Every automaker knows the future must be electric and realizes that the path to broader adoption isn’t through cost reduction alone. To transform the world and meet consumer expectations, the industry needs to take the next big step on battery performance and charging speeds. With Sila, automakers can deliver next-generation EVs that will win over those who expect more from their electric experience.”

“We have observed Sila’s steady execution since we first invested in the company in 2021,” said Joseph Fath, portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. “With its disciplined focus on manufacturing and quality, we believe Sila has the persistence and durability to meet future global demand and be a market leader for the long haul.”

Titan Silicon was the first commercial next-generation silicon anode technology to enter the market in 2021. Today, it delivers up to a 20-25% energy density improvement over the industry’s best performing graphite cells, enabling automakers to deliver unmatched EV performance, dramatically increasing vehicle range and reducing charge times – pivotal to addressing consumer concern in switching to electric. Future releases of Titan Silicon will drive improvement of up to 40%, recharge times to less than 10 minutes, and lower the $/kWh cost of batteries.

Ardea Partners LP served as the exclusive financial advisor to Sila for its Series G round.

SOURCE: Sila

Featured Image: Credit: Sila