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Battery materials startup Elementium has closed $11 million in seed financing, CEO Matthew Dawson tells Axios Pro exclusively.

The big picture: Energy storage is seeing growing investor interest thanks to energy demand growth and data centers. 

Follow the money: Elementium, based in Katy, Texas, closed the funding across two parts, last year and in 2024.

Dawson, who previously co-founded industrial decarb startup Utility Global, declined to name the investors, but he says the financing will go toward R&D and delivering products to customers. 

How it works: Elementium, founded in 2024, makes a liquid electrolyte that can be used in standard and advanced batteries, enabling better performance, faster charging and longer lifetimes, while also being low cost and nontoxic.

Traditional electrolytes often use carbonate solvents. Elementium uses alternative materials, like in the sulfonyl family.

Much of the battery industry's development has focused on the electrode parts of the battery. 

"To truly unlock the potential of those electrodes, you need a compatible electrolyte," says Dawson. "Carbonates are not really suited for today's electrodes."

Zoom in: Dawson says Elementium is working with more than 75 potential customers who are qualifying its electrolytes, including over 25 Fortune 500 companies. 

The company is also working with Korean battery chemical companies Dongwha and Enchem to blend its electrolyte, enabling manufacturing scale up through partners, says Dawson, who received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Elementium's first commercial projects are expected to be deployed this year in the drone and consumer electronics space, says Dawson. 

Zoom out: Data center developers, homeowners and industrial and commercial companies are looking to batteries as a way to provide grid stability, lower rates and higher uses of clean energy. 

The intrigue: Most investors are backing companies that leverage the growth of low-cost batteries in Asia.  

It's far harder to back new battery chemistry plays. 

Exclusive: Elementium raises $11M for better battery materials

The Texas startup has three large pilots with consumer electronics companies.

Illustration of a battery icon with hundred dollar bills as the bars indicating that it's full. 

Battery materials startup Elementium has closed $11 million in seed financing, CEO Matthew Dawson tells Axios Pro exclusively.The big picture: Energy storage is seeing growing investor interest thanks to energy demand growth and data centers.

Exclusive: Elementium raises $11M for better battery materials

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