Breathe Battery Technologies has secured $21 million in its Series B funding round, aimed at enhancing battery performance prediction tools for the electric vehicle (EV) industry. The funding round was led by Kinnevik Online AB, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital and Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
Ian Campbell, co-founder and CEO of Breathe, highlighted the increasing pressure on automakers to shorten development cycles, particularly in China’s rapidly evolving automotive market. “With the increasingly short development cycles in China, it’s driving a huge amount of cost and time focus,” Campbell explained. This urgency extends to both Eastern and Western markets, where predicting battery performance is crucial for the success of EVs.
Breathe has developed a suite of software tools designed to optimize battery performance by providing greater flexibility in battery design and management. The company’s offerings include Design, Model, Map, and Charge. The Charge tool, Breathe’s initial product, optimizes charging strategies to either speed up refilling or extend battery longevity. For instance, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Oppo utilized Breathe’s software to reduce charging time by 27%, while Volvo has integrated the technology into its upcoming ES90 sedan, enabling a charge from 10% to 80% in just 20 minutes.
Despite the tightly controlled nature of battery manufacturing, inconsistencies between individual cells can lead to varying performance characteristics. Breathe’s software addresses these challenges by allowing automakers to maximize the potential of each cell based on its unique attributes. This capability is particularly valuable as automakers navigate the unpredictable EV market landscape, where making physical changes to battery components can be both costly and time-consuming.
The $21 million investment will enable Breathe to integrate its software earlier in the battery development process, enhancing the accuracy of performance predictions and reducing the need for extensive lab testing. Breathe operates a laboratory in London, where it conducts comprehensive tests on batteries to develop accurate performance models. These models help customers simulate future battery performance and make informed decisions about development investments.
Campbell likens Breathe’s software tools to those used in the semiconductor industry, which have been instrumental for companies like Apple and Nvidia in implementing processor designs efficiently. “We want to try and do for batteries what we’ve seen the simulation software from Cadence and Synopsis do so effectively in semiconductor design,” he stated.
Breathe Battery Technologies aims to streamline the battery development process, supporting the growing demand for reliable and high-performance batteries in the EV and electronics sectors.
Source: TechCrunch
