Sakti3 Inc. has brought in General Motors' new venture capital arm as an investor in the hope that the automaker will help commercialize the start-up's battery technology.
The company said it received $3.2 million from General Motors Ventures and $1 million from Itochu Technology Ventures, which bought minority stakes in the company. The funding was the second close of the company's Series B round.
"Absolutely everyone here hopes that there will be a customer-supplier relationship" between GM and Sakti3, said Ann Marie Sastry, chief executive of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based start-up.
For starters, GM expects to test Sakti3's battery cells once they are available, said Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures, which was created earlier this year with $100 million to invest in new technologies that could be incorporated into GM's vehicles. Sakti3 is working on prototype battery cells, some of which would be more geared for cellphones and other consumer electronics.
Lauckner said it's too early to tell whether GM would be involved in any manufacturing of Sakti3's batteries, which are still in the early stages of development.
"Electrically driven vehicles are more expensive than gasoline-fueled ones, and in order to grow the market to its full potential we're going to have to improve the electric vehicle, batteries or power electronics significantly in order to allow those to mature," Lauckner said.
Lauckner said his team looked at several early-stage battery technologies and found that Sakti3's has "the potential to be quite a game-changer."
The venture group, now totaling about a dozen people, has made one other investment so far--in hybrid electric vehicle maker Bright Automotive Inc.--and is likely to make several others this year, Lauckner said. Its main areas of focus are automotive clean tech, infotainment, advanced materials and sensor technologies.
Sakti3 won't be the only battery technology in which GM Ventures invests, said Lauckner, adding that it makes sense for GM to invest in some later-stage battery technologies as well, as batteries take a while to develop.
Sakti3's Sastry said she has long cooperated with GM in her capacity as professor of engineering at the University of Michigan. Sastry is co-director with GM's Mickey Bly of the GM/UM advanced battery coalition for drivetrains, a partnership that tests, models and develops battery technology. Bly is executive director of global electrical systems, hybrids, and electric vehicles and batteries at GM.
Sakti3 is developing a solid-state lithium-ion battery, which the company hopes will extend range, lifetime and power of batteries both in electric vehicles and in consumer electronics. Japan-based Itochu will help the company explore the Asian consumer electronics markets, said Sastry.
"We see that North America is often the test market for devices and products that penetrate global markets," Sastry said.
The first close of the round took place earlier this year with $7 million from lead investor Beringea and returning backer Khosla Ventures. Sastry declined to comment on valuation.
