Secretive startup Holyvolt buys US battery firm for $73m: 'Best in the world'

Impact Loop first lifted the lid on Holyvolt in late 2024 when the Swedish startup raised €9.4m despite still being in stealth mode.

It's backers include Volvo, climate tech VC Course Corrected, and FAM, the investment vehicle of Sweden’s Wallenberg family.

Now the company has acquired American battery company Wildcat Discovery Technologies – which Holyvolt had previously been a customer of.

"Wildcat is today the world leader – hands down the best in the world – in battery chemistry," Mathias Ingvarsson, CEO of Holyvolt, tells Impact Loop.

"They have focused for 18 years on battery chemistry and become world leaders in anodes, cathodes, electrolytes – and essentially everything around a battery," he says.

According to Ingvarsson, Wildcat, based in San Diego, California, has developed a 'high throughput' technology capable of testing large numbers of material combinations in parallel, a method originally developed for the pharmaceutical industry.

"It revolutionised drug discovery, and then people thought: can we do the same thing with other chemistries," he says.

A mix of capital

Holyvolt recently raised €12m at a €182m valuation, Impact Loop revealed in February. According to Ingvarsson, the round, and previous one of around €5.5m, designed to raise money for the acquisition. The deal is being made with a mix of cash, shares, and deferred milestone payments.

"We raised money internally in our cap table in order to do this deal. We raised around €20m and now we have the opportunity to raise an additional up to €20m."

According to Ingvarsson, Holyvolt is taking over a number of customers through the acquisition.

"They have a fantastic customer base, both historically and now, with the kinds of companies and clients you can only dream of," he says, without naming anyone specifically.

Overseas expansion

The acquisition means, according to the CEO, that Holyvolt's own operations – which are still heavily research and development focused – can move toward scaling up.

"The acquisition is absolutely to speed things up, and not just for what we're doing right now – but for the battery chemistries of tomorrow," says Ingvarsson. "In three to four months, we did with them something that normally takes two to four years."

Holyvolt will now have offices in three cities: Stockholm, Munich, and now, San Diego.