LiNa Energy secures £3m investment

Lancaster-based LiNa Energy has raised £3m in investment which will accelerate the commercialisation of its next-generation battery technology.

LiNa began work on its novel battery technology as a spin-out of Lancaster University in 2017 and has led several grant research projects to progress and demonstrate the technology.

In October 2021, the company received investment to double its Lancaster R&D space to  around 5,000 sqft by fitting out a new lab for cell assembly, quadruple cell testing capacity and invest in lab-based manufacturing processes and equipment to increase cell manufacturing capacity. At this point the LiNa team also grew to 29 people.

Having now closed out a £3m late seed funding round, primarily from existing investors, LiNa can now focus for the next year on several activities: from accelerating the technology development, progressing manufacturing scale-up, delivering customer trial programmes including feasibility studies and co-testing with partners, to building a presence in India where LiNa has signed a Memorandum of understanding recently.

James Morrish, CFO of LiNa Energy, said: "Receiving this investment enables us to build our team, develop our technology and finalise our scale-up plans ahead of a Series A round in mid 2023. We have a very exciting 18 months ahead. We are delighted to see our investors continue to support LiNa’s pioneering, cobalt and lithium free, low cost, safe, sustainable sodium battery technology, with a total investment of £3m."

Founder Dr Gene Lewis, said: “Our technology spun out of Lancaster University, and since 2017 we have been proudly flying the flag as a Lancaster company. Our local ties are embedded in the DNA of the business. We are delighted that this £3m funding will enable us to continue our local growth whilst also championing our sustainable technology that will help make net-zero 2050 a reality.”

To date LiNa Energy has secured over £10.5m in equity seed funding and been awarded several prestigious grants; working with key partners including the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, Faraday Battery Challenge, Innovate UK and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

The company expects to be launching a Series A in Q2 2023 to fund a pre-pilot line.