- General
- April 16, 2019
- 4 minutes read
Daimler Leads $170 Million Series E For Sila Nano
image: Daimler Sila Nanotechnologies (“Sila Nano”) — a battery startup founded in 2011 by Silicon Valley battery engineers and a…
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| image: Daimler |
Sila Nanotechnologies (“Sila Nano”) — a battery startup founded in 2011 by Silicon Valley battery engineers and a Georgia Tech professor of materials science — has raised $170 million in Series E funding led by Daimler, with participation from new investor 8VC alongside returning investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Siemens Next47, Matrix Partners, Chengwei Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
This funding brings the total raised by Sila Nano to $295 million and values the company at more than $1 billion as confirmed by its CEO Gene Berdichevsky to TechCrunch. Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Daimler executive Alex Nediger are joining Sila Nano’s board as part of this investment.
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| image: Daimler |
Daimler has formed a strategic R&D partnership with Sila Nano thanks to its investment. The German automaker is focusing on the Mercedes-Benz EQ line of electric vehicles for this effort. Mercedes-Benz has previously announced it’s putting in around €10 billion ($11.28 billion) towards the expansion of its product portfolio under the EQ brand.
Sila Nano in turn says it’ll ramp up production volume, with plans to supply its first commercial customers by next year. The Alameda, Calfornia based company says it’ll continue to scale up production with plans to hit the market with its automaker partners Daimler and BMW.
