Ion Storage Systems (ION), the battery technology company founded by ECS President Eric Wachsman, announced the initial closing of its $30 million Series A financing round. Clear Creek Investments, VoLO Earth Ventures, and Alsop Louie Partners led the investment. With the funding, ION will commission and qualify a battery cell manufacturing line capable of producing 10MWh/yr of safe, energy dense and versatile solid state batteries.
Ion Storage Systems
ION started in Dr. Wachsman’s University of Maryland chemistry lab with a $574,275 federal grant. The company’s high-energy dense, nonflammable solid state lithium metal batteries are safer, lighter, pack tighter density, tolerate greater abuse, and have reduced volume and weight. The new financing enables the company to launch a factory near Washington, D.C., and begin commercial production of the batteries. Aerospace and defense customers will receive the first commercial cells followed by development projects with multiple electric vehicle manufacturers, defense contractors, and consumer electronics companies.
The company is one of several startups focusing on solid state lithium ion batteries. These batteries differ from most lithium ion batteries today. A solid is used instead of a flammable liquid electrolyte to conduct a charge between cathode and anode, making charging faster, lowering the risk of fire, and battery life longer.
Eric Wachsman
Dr. Wachsman is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland (UMD), where he is Director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute and Crentz Centennial Chair in Energy Research, with appointments in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. An active and committed ECS member since 1989, Dr. Wachsman became President of The Electrochemical Society in June 2021. A Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and American Ceramic Society, he holds 37 patents in battery and fuel cell technologies and has published more than 290 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Wachsman received the 2017 ECS Carl Wagner Award, 2014 Sir William Grove Award (International Association for Hydrogen Energy), 2014 Pfeil Award (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining), 2012 Fuel Cell Seminar Award, and 2012 ECS High Temperature Materials Division Outstanding Achievement Award.
