WATTALPS receives €11m Series A funding to expand manufacturing capacity and extend its product range, pushing the boundaries of lithium-ion battery technology with its patented immersion cooling technology.
European lithium-ion batteries start-up WATTALPS has successfully secured €11 million in Series A funding from new investors, historical investors and WATTALPS’ banks.
The funding, which will allow the company to continue to push the limits of lithium-ion battery technology with its patented cooling, facilitates an ambitious development program, including:
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- An eightfold increase in its manufacturing capacity in Moirans near Grenoble, which is currently 2,000 batteries per year, ranging from 10 kWh to 500 kWh, with a target to surpass turnover of €100 million in five years.
- Cost and productivity improvements for the current product offering of modular and high-performance lithium-ion batteries featuring patented immersion cooling technology.
- Extension of its product range to cover additional market needs.
- Expansion of its commercial coverage beyond Europe.
The new investors are major European venture capital firms: France’s Supernova Invest, a European leader in deeptech investment, Move Energy, a Dutch fund which focuses on energy transition, and Ring Capital, a pioneer impact fund. They form an experienced, skilled and complementary team together with CASRA Capital and WATTALPS’ historical investors: EIT InnoEnergy, Eximium and the highly-selective EIC Fund.
WATTALPS battery system, an innovative and modular solution for clean power
With 11 years of R&D relating to batteries using immersion cooling, WATTALPS is a pioneer in this state-of-the-art and future-proof technology. WATTALPS’ modular battery system is certified according to industrial standard IEC 62619 and automotive functional safety standard ISO 26262. Its robust and compact batteries, from 48V to 800V, have already been validated by companies ranging from large international businesses to SMEs across a wide range of industries, including construction equipment (rollers, pavers, dampers, excavators…), agriculture (animal feeding robots, hybrid field tractors…), mining (demolition robots…), cargo handling, trucks and municipal vehicles, marine, and sportscars.
Its patented cooling architecture gives WATTALPS a clear advantage over its competitors, by increasing overall performance, battery life and battery safety. Improved thermal management has enabled the company to provide batteries that charge faster, deliver higher power and can work in a wider range of temperatures than comparable models, making them ideal for electrification or hybridization of heavy-duty and demanding applications.
Europe’s electric heavy duty & offroad equipment market is gaining momentum
WATTALPS specializes in batteries for heavy-duty mobile and demanding applications in both on-road and off-highway markets. Market intelligence specialist Interact Analysis says that the off-highway market comprised 5.8 million unit sales in 2023, with significant growth potential in the future, particularly with increasing electrification. Following the wave of electrification within its target markets, WATTALPS has seen its revenues multiplied by five in 2023 and more than triple in 2024.
Matthieu Desbois-Renaudin, CEO and Co-Founder at WATTALPS, explains: “Our customers want batteries which are safe and always work as expected in all conditions, including the toughest that might be encountered by their applications. They had often started to work with other batteries and reached the limits of those classical batteries before choosing to work with us. They now want more of our batteries with the same technology, the same high quality, and the same high levels of customer service that are in the DNA of WATTALPS.”
Environmental and security of supply concerns are expected to further drive demand for battery-electric vehicles over the coming years. WATTALPS’ cutting-edge batteries contribute to making electrification of large off-highway machinery increasingly possible. According to company Riverse, each WATTALPS’ module prevents 1.27 tons of tCO2 equivalent (CO2eq) when used to electrify industrial equipment. This equates to a total of over 290,000 CO2eq by 2028 (more than the equivalent annual CO2 emission of 180,000 cars*). WATTALPS also offers the possibility to repurpose its batteries for less demanding applications at the end of their first life, sparing an additional 1.13t CO2eq.
€11m fundraising will realize ambitious expansion plans
WATTALPS now intends to double its team to 40 people in the coming 18 months. There are also plans for further investment using the new round of funding to facilitate the move to a bigger factory. By 2028, the head count of the company in the French Alps will surpass 100, contributing to the social and industrial ecosystem of the Auvergne Rhone Alpes region.
Marine Glon, Investment Director at Supernova Invest, declares: “We are delighted to announce our investment in WATTALPS, which underscores our firm belief in the company’s significant potential. The remarkable achievements of the team to date align perfectly with our DNA to support visionary entrepreneurs developing breakthrough innovation, such as the patented immersion cooling system and modular approach.“
Mirjam Terhorst, Partner at Move Energy, adds: “We are excited about our investment in WATTALPS, given their unparallelled potential to decarbonize heavy duty vehicles. We look forward to unlocking the market in Northern Europe for their innovative energy solutions, together with the dedicated WATTALPS team.”
Matthieu adds, “We have now secured the financial backing needed to grow our business and fulfill customer demand. This funding is giving us the means to remain at the forefront of battery technology and enables us to reach a wider range of customers, while scaling up production to meet rising demand.”
* Sources: average CO2 emission of cars by ADEME and average milage per year by SDES, RSVERO.
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About WATTALPS:
Founded by Manuel Ronco, Matthieu Desbois-Renaudin and Jean-Noël Carminati, WATTALPS has been designing, assembling and marketing modular and high-performance li-ion batteries for heavy duty mobile applications since 2018. WATTALPS won the EIC Accelerator Competition 2020 (grant agreement n°101009840). The company is also supported by ADEME and elected as a High Potential Partner by the AuRA region.
About WATTALPS batteries:
WATTALPS has developed an innovative immersion cooling technology that has its origins at the CEA. WATTALPS multi-patented immersion cooling pushes the boundaries of li-ion batteries, increasing their performance, life and safety. Three initial CEA patents as well as four additional patents filed by WATTALPS protect this high-density innovation; the only one on the market guaranteeing full performance whatever the climate (from -20°C to +45°C) and the intensity of use.
About Supernova Invest
Supernova Invest is the leading deep tech Venture Capital firm in France and Europe, managing €700+ million. The current portfolio includes 80+ impact startup companies that develop products and services leveraging breakthrough technologies in 4 transition-centric sectors: Health, Energy & Environment, Industry 4.0 and Digital Technology. For 20 years, Supernova Invest has been providing long-term capital, operating experience, and strategic support to back sustainable growth of tomorrow’s deep tech and industrial champions throughout the Venture Capital life cycle: seed, early, late and growth stages. Supernova Invest also gathers the entire deep tech value chain to support portfolio companies: industrials, corporate, research centers and co-investors.
Supernova Invest is backed both by Amundi, the largest asset manager in Europe, and CEA, the most innovative public research organization in Europe.
About Move Energy
Move Energy is an early-stage venture capital investor investing at the forefront of innovating hardware and software solutions that contribute to the energy transition. Move Energy’s energy transition fund provides early-growth stage capital to European companies making a tangible impact towards achieving net-zero targets, with a special focus on power, transport and buildings. Move Energy is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Pon Holdings is a cornerstone investor of Move Energy Fund.
Move Energy is backed by multiple family offices and private investors.
For more information visit: https://moveenergy.vc.
About Ring Capital
As an ecosystem dedicated to impact investing, Ring Capital finances and supports entrepreneurs offering solutions to major social and environmental challenges through 4 investment vehicles and a philanthropic fund. Ring Mission, the fund that took part in WATTALPS funding operation, is a venture impact fund supporting Series A start-ups with high impact and growth potential. The 3 other investment vehicles are: Ring Altitude, positioned in the growth impact segment; Ring Generations powered by EDHEC, an impact pre-seed and seed fund created with EDHEC Business School; and Ring Africa, an impact seed fund dedicated to start-ups in French-speaking West Africa. Finally, through its philanthropic fund Ring Foundation, Ring Capital offers multi-year financial and organisational backing to non-profit organisations with a sustainable and measurable positive impact.
The funds under management come from institutional players such as Tikehau Capital, Bpifrance, the EIF and family or private investors.
Find out more at: www.ringcp.com
About EIC Fund
The EIC Fund has been established by the European Commission as the venture arm of the European Innovation Council. It aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to support companies in the development and commercialization of disruptive technologies, bridging with and crowding in market players. The European Investment Bank is the investment adviser to the EIC Fund.
The Fund pays particular attention to the empowerment and support of female founders, to reducing the innovation divide among EU countries and to the role of innovation toward climate action.
https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-fund_en
About KIC InnoEnergy
InnoEnergy was established in 2010 and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. Since its inception, InnoEnergy has launched more than 300 products to market and overseen its portfolio companies filing 370+ patents. Today, InnoEnergy has a trusted ecosystem of 1200+ partners and 35 shareholders and offices across Europe and in Boston, US.
Recognised as Europe’s top cleantech and blue economy venture capital firm and investor in 2023 by Startup Genome, one of Europe’s top 10 most active deeptech investors by Sifted in 2023 and the most active investor in the energy sector in 2022 by Pitchbook, InnoEnergy has a portfolio of more than 200 companies, which are estimated to generate €110 billion in revenue and save 2.1G tonnes of CO2e accumulatively by 2030.
About Eximium
A family office founded by Michel Baulé, Eximium is a non-typical player because of its double culture – entrepreneurial and financial – managing investments in listed and unlisted companies as well as in real estate for nearly €500m, with the help of a team of around 20 people.
Concerning its activity of growth capital / buyout capital, Eximium invests its own funds with no time limit as part of minority or majority transactions. Eximium meets entrepreneurial SMEs’ needs for equity financing as part of their growth projects (internal or external) or capital restructuring. A long-term view, and a pragmatic and flexible approach, as well as efficient decision-making processes, are the main features of Eximiu, which invests up to €10m per operation (exceptionally more). Today Eximium supports some 20 French SMEs in all lines of business.
Eximium has an internal team of around 15 skilled staff providing all required services both for its own account and for its investments (management control, human resources, IT, accounting/finance and legal advice).
Find out more on: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eximium