Fast-charging startup Nyobolt valued at $354M

Nyobolt, a Cambridge, U.K., startup that makes ultrafast-charging batteris, raised £50 million (~$59 million) in Series B funding, the company tells Axios.

Why it matters: The investment puts a spotlight on rapid electrification and the demand for these products, as consumers seek fast and reliable ways to charge everything from their appliances to their cars.

Details: H.C. Starck Tungsten Powders, a subsidiary of Masan High-Tech Materials, led the all-equity round at a £300 million (~$354 million) valuation and will gain a board seat.

• Unnamed existing investors also participated in the round, Nyobolt CEO Sai Shivareddy tells Axios. The round closed last week, he says.

How it works: Shivareddy and his co-founder, Clare Grey, worked on fast-charging battery technology at Cambridge as researchers for nearly 10 years before launching the company in 2019.

• Nyobolt's battery, which is undergoing a pilot, relies on reengineered materials that provide less friction for ions moving in and out of the cell during charging.
• Tungsten is among Nyobolt's primary materials, though Shivareddy declined to disclose others.

Zoom in: H.C. Starck is among the world's largest tungsten suppliers and oversees an end-to-end refining and recycling process for the material.

• Shivareddy says the investment was strategic for both businesses as Nyobolt primarily purchases a majority of its tungsten from H.C. Starck.
• "It's easier to plan longer and bigger projects with shared manufacturing partners because they have the experience we need. Traditional VCs, especially in later stages, do not have the experience in the areas we need with heavy manufacturing," Shivareddy says.

The bottom line: Nyobolt's pilot is only operating on megawatt hours, so it still has a long way to go before powering EVs and homes.

Editor's note: this story was updated to fix a typo in the company's name throughout.