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on LA Startups & Tech
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Faster charging, longer life, cooler temperatures.
For batteries, it’s usually a “choose one of the above” scenario.
But Battery Streak, a fledgling startup based in an unassuming business park in Camarillo, CA, says it has all three, and they have it today.
“Our technology, in its current state, is something that we're bringing to market today,” says Dan Alpern, VP of Marketing at Battery Streak. “We're out of the lab and ready to go now.”
Given those claims, it’s not surprising that Battery Streak says they’ve attracted attention from major multinational brands, the U.S. military and electric vehicle manufacturers. Their batteries offer lightning-fast charging: Up to 80% capacity in 10 minutes. This alone would make the technology attractive for a variety of applications, but the company says it can hit those numbers while maintaining temperatures lower than that of the human body—all while maintaining a higher capacity across more cycles than traditional lithium-ion batteries are able to provide. Battery Streak’s test results show their product retains 80% of its capacity after 3,000 charge/discharge cycles. Today’s best lithium-ion batteries usually drop to 80% in about 1,000 cycles.
The secret sauce behind Battery Streak’s impressive stats is a rare metal called niobium. Element number 41 on the periodic table, niobium naturally reacts with oxygen to form a porous crystalline structure known as niobium oxide or niobia. The molecule’s shape gives it an incredible amount of surface area—which is what makes it so useful in battery design.
The lithium ions travel from the lithium metal anode to the cathode as the battery discharges in traditional lithium ion cells. The cathode is usually made of graphite—a crystalline carbon structure that traps and holds the ions in a process known as intercalation. This works well enough, but it requires the lithium ions to penetrate deep into the graphite lattice and undergo a chemical phase transition, releasing heat. The process can also get bogged down if the metal ions don’t penetrate deep enough into the carbon matrix and instead clump to form a metal coating. This is lithium plating, and it’s a massive problem facing batteries of the future and today.
Replacing the graphite in the cathode with niobium solves—or at least improves—both of these problems. Due to the larger surface area of the niobium oxide molecules, lithium ions don’t need to penetrate deep into the crystal lattice or undergo any phase transitions to remain in place. Instead, the lithium ions nestle onto the surface of the niobium lattice. Easy on, easy off, so to speak.
Most of the world’s naturally occurring niobium can be found in Canada and Brazil and the mines and supply chains are robust thanks to the metal’s long history as a component of steel alloys. CBMM, a Brazilian niobium mining company has invested $5 million in Battery Streak and supplies all of the niobium for their batteries. Additional funding has come from a National Science Foundation grant and a pre-seed round from Act One Ventures, bringing the total to $6.5 million.
The battery design was first conceived at UCLA by a team of researchers including Bruce Dunn and Sarah Tolbert.
“These professors came to the licensing group and basically said, ‘Hey, we got this great new technology, find somebody to spin it out,’” says Battery Streak President David Grant.
Grant, who has previously founded several successful startups, is UCLA’s entrepreneur in residence.
“They looked around and said ‘Well, David's not doing anything, let's call him’,” he jokes. The company brought in Chun-Han “Matt” Lai from UCLA as technology development manager and started working on the commercialization process. Five years later, the company is ready to hit the market.
Image courtesy of Battery Streak!
Battery Streak’s ultimate goal isn’t to become a battery manufacturing giant…at least not yet. Their current business model is to make and supply the niobium nanostructures to battery manufacturers or to license the production technique to larger companies. In order to get these contacts, they have to convince the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) selling the downstream products to give this new battery formulation a chance. A battery giant like Samsung isn’t going to switch up its battery chemistry unless there’s demand for the new tech. So, part of Battery Streak’s current strategy is getting their batteries into the hands of OEMs.They are targeting power tools, warehouse robots, drones, medical devices to start—all sectors where battery performance is critical and where there’s access to fast charging infrastructure.
When I toured Battery Streak’s manufacturing and design facility in June, the company was in something of a holding pattern. A standard COVID supply chain hiccup had them waiting on delivery of a 100-liter reactor that would let them move from producing a few grams of niobium per day to several kilograms. The reactor arrived a few days ago and as of July 19th, the company was drying its third large scale batch of product and sending out sample batteries for equipment manufacturers to demo.
Fortunately for Battery Streak, Dan Alpern says that battery manufacturers can build niobium batteries using all the existing lithium-ion equipment. There’s no need to purchase new machinery, parts, or packaging.
As impressive as some of Battery Streaks' numbers seem, there are two important caveats. The first is that to realize all their fast-charging potential, you need fast chargers. No standard home outlet can deliver enough power to let you charge your EV to 80% in 10 minutes.
Charging and discharging speeds are described on a C scale, where 1C means the battery charges or discharges in 1 hour. 2C indicates that the battery charges and discharges in 30 minutes, 3C indicates 20 minutes, etc, etc. Battery Streak’s tech allows them to charge and discharge in the 6C range. That’s incredibly fast. To deliver that much power to the battery, you need more voltage (or current) than a standard wall outlet (120 volts in the United States) can supply. That’s why the company is focusing its initial efforts on applications with easy access to higher voltage/current power supplies: auto shops, hospitals, warehouses, etc. Still, consumer electronics aren’t completely off the table: With a new type of charger, Grant says that his company’s batteries could offer improved charging times for phones or laptops, even with the current electrical grid.
As EVs become more mainstream, access to faster charging infrastructure will likely become more widespread. Many EV owners and landlords are installing level 2 charging (240 volts) in their houses or properties. Battery Streak is hoping to ride this wave into the future, but the electrical infrastructure required to reap the full potential of their technology isn’t that widespread yet.
Battery Streak is taking a more conservative approach in the electric vehicle sector. They’re in conversation with multiple automotive clients, but the second caveat facing their tech is that the niobium formulation reduces the total capacity of the battery by about 20% compared to a lithium-ion battery of the same size. The tradeoff is faster charging for reduced range. Some deficit can be offset by the reduced need for cooling gear, which also costs weight and space, but with so much consumer concern over range, other next generation battery technologies–especially solid state–may ultimately win the race. Scooters, bikes, and other micro-mobility use cases are also definitely on the table.
In terms of clientele, Battery Streak can’t say much because they’re bound by NDA’s with “pretty much everyone,” according to Grant. Their only large public contract is with the U.S. Navy. Their low temperature and high discharge rate has made Battery Streak’s batteries an enticing target for drone use. Quadcopter-style drones require considerable energy for takeoff, but use much less to maintain flight. The military was searching for a battery that could meet that dynamic power profile and recharge quickly in arctic environments, says Alpern, who served in the Navy on active duty from 1984-1990, and worked as a civilian employee from 2009-2021.
Image courtesy of Battery Streak!
Battery Streak’s next phase is unclear. With its giant new reactor finally online, the company hangs on a precipice: If the test cells it’s sending out are well received by OEMs and the company can convince larger battery manufacturers to add a niobium formulation to their offerings, Batter Streak could potentially become worth billions, if only as a supplier of niobium powder.
There’s also the possibility that Battery Streak becomes a manufacturer. This wasn’t really at the forefront of the company’s plans even a few months ago, but according to Alpern, the winds are changing. There’s a possibility of setting up a factory in Kentucky using $50 million of state and federal funds allocated for clean energy initiatives to help replace coal jobs in the region. There are also whispers about Department of Energy subsidies.
“We're looking at Nevada, we're looking at Texas, we're looking at Arizona, we’ve spoken with North Carolina,” says Alpern.
Such an investment wouldn’t be unheard of for a niobium battery startup either. Earlier this month, UK-based Nyobolt secured $59 million in Series B funding to begin construction on a manufacturing facility that could come online as early as 2023. Another UK-based competitor, Echion Technologies, has also been in the news.
With the space clearly heating up, the race to market is on. Battery Streak says it’s hoping to have its first production batteries commercially available within the year.
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
When avatar startup Genies raised $150 million in April, the company released an unusual message to the public: “Farewell.”
The Marina del Rey-based unicorn, which makes cartoon-like avatars for celebrities and aims to “build an avatar for every single person on Earth,” didn’t go under. Rather, Genies announced it would stay quiet for a while to focus on building avatar-creation products.
Genies representatives told dot.LA that the firm is now seeking more creators to try its creation tools for 3D avatars, digital fashion items and virtual experiences. On Thursday, the startup launched a three-week program called DIY Collective, which will mentor and financially support up-and-coming creatives.
Similar programs are common in the startup world and in the creator economy. For example, social media companies can use accelerator programs not only to support rising stars but to lure those creators—and their audiences—to the company’s platforms. Genies believes avatars will be a crucial part of the internet’s future and is similarly using its program to encourage creators to launch brands using Genies’ platform.
“I think us being able to work hands on with this next era—this next generation of designers and entrepreneurs—not only gets us a chance to understand how people want to use our platform and tools, but also allows us to nurture those types of creators that are going to exist and continue to build within our ecosystem,” said Allison Sturges, Genies’ head of strategic partnerships.
DIY Collective’s initial cohort will include roughly 15 people, Sturges said. They will spend three weeks at the Genies headquarters, participating in workshops and hearing from CEOs, fashion designers, tattoo artists and speakers from other industries, she added. Genies will provide creatives with funding to build brands and audiences, though Sturges declined to share how much. By the end of the program, participants will be able to sell digital goods through the company’s NFT marketplace, The Warehouse. There, people can buy, sell and trade avatar creations, such as wearable items.
Genies will accept applications for the debut program until Aug. 1. It will kick off on Aug. 8, and previous experience in digital fashion and 3D art development is not required.
Sturges said that the program will teach people “about the tools and capabilities that they will have” through Genies’ platform, as well as “how to think about building their own avatar ecosystem brands and even their own audience.”
Founded in 2017, Genies established itself by making avatars for celebrities from Rihanna to Russell Westbrook, who have used the online lookalikes for social media and sponsorship opportunities. The 150-person company, which has raised at least $250 million to date, has secured partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to make avatars for each music label’s entire roster of artists. Former Disney boss Bob Iger joined the company’s board in March.
The company wants to extend avatars to everyone else. Avatars—digital figures that represent an individual—may be the way people interact with each other in the 3D virtual worlds of the metaverse, the much-hyped iteration of the internet where users may one day work, shop and socialize. A company spokesperson previously told dot.LA that Genies has been beta testing avatar creator tools with invite-only users and gives creators “full ownership and commercialization rights” over their creations collecting a 5% transaction fee each time an avatar NFT is sold.
“It's an opportunity for people to build their most expressive and authentic self within this digital era,” Sturges said of avatars.
The company’s call for creators could be a sign that Genies is close to rolling out the Warehouse and its tools publicly. Asked what these avatar tools might look like, the startup went somewhat quiet again.
Allison Sturges said, “I think that's probably something that I'll hold off on sharing. We will be rolling some of this out soon.”
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
LA Tech Week—a weeklong showcase of the region’s growing startup ecosystem—is coming this August.
The seven-day series of events, from Aug. 15 through Aug. 21, is a chance for the Los Angeles startup community to network, share insights and pitch themselves to investors. It comes a year after hundreds of people gathered for a similar event that allowed the L.A. tech community—often in the shadow of Silicon Valley—to flex its muscles.
From fireside chats with prominent founders to a panel on aerospace, here are some highlights from the roughly 30 events happening during LA Tech Week, including one hosted by dot.LA.
DoorDash’s Founding Story: Stanley Tang, a cofounder and chief product officer of delivery giant DoorDash, speaks with Pear VC's founding managing partner, Pejman Nozad. They'll discuss how to grow a tech company from seed stage all the way to an initial public offering. Aug. 19 at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Santa Monica.
The Founders Guide to LA: A presentation from dot.LA cofounder and executive chairman Spencer Rascoff, who co-founded Zillow and served as the real estate marketplace firm’s CEO. Aug. 16 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Brentwood.
Time To Build: Los Angeles: Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) hosts a discussion on how L.A. can maintain its momentum as one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the U.S. Featured speakers include a16z general partners Connie Chan and Andrew Chen, as well as Grant Lafontaine, the cofounder and CEO of shopping marketplace Whatnot. Aug. 19 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Santa Monica.
How to Build Successful Startups in Difficult Industries: Leaders from Southern California’s healthcare and aerospace startups gather for panels and networking opportunities. Hosted by TechStars, the event includes speakers from the U.S. Space Force, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Applied VR and University of California Irvine. Aug. 15 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Culver City.
LA Tech Week Demo Day: Early stage startups from the L.A. area pitch a panel of judges including a16z’s Andrew Chen and Nikita Bier, who co-founded the Facebook-acquired social media app tbh. Inside a room of 100 tech leaders in a Beverly Hills mansion, the pitch contest is run by demo day events platform Stonks and live-in accelerator Launch House. Aug. 17 from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Beverly Hills.
Registration information and a full list of LA Tech Week events can be found here.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
Like a zombie from the grave, the husk of President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation is on the table again thanks to an abrupt about face from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).
The bill, which is now being called the Inflation Reduction Act, has yet to be codified into law and still has to clear several political hurdles, but getting Manchin was by far the biggest.
If the act passes, it would include numerous changes to the electric vehicle buying rebate system, which will impact which EVs and which buyers are eligible for the cashback. There’s a lot to unpack here (the full draft of the bill can be read here[PDF]), but here are the biggest takeaways:
1.The total amount available for rebate remains $7,500, but now it comes in the form of cash back at the time of purchase instead of a tax return.
2.Rebates will only be available to people below a certain income threshold. The rebates will not be available to individuals who make more than $150,000/yr or to households making more than $300,000/yr.
3.The rebates only apply to vehicles below a certain price threshold. Cars priced above $55,000 will not qualify. Neither will trucks, vans, and SUVs over $80,000.
4.The rebate will only apply to vehicles that are primarily assembled in North America. Primarily is the key word here, and things quickly get complicated. Different percentage thresholds will apply for different mineral and battery components. To start, at least 40% of the minerals used in the vehicle and 50% of the battery components must come from North America, but these percentages increase every year. If the vehicle passes either the battery threshold test or the mineral threshold test, but not both, buyers may still be eligible for half of the total rebate ($3,750).
5.Manufacturer caps eliminated. Under the previous system manufacturers could only offer rebates on their first 200,000 EV sales. Only Tesla, Toyota, and GM have reached the cap so far, but Ford and Nissan are also getting close.
6.The act introduces a used vehicle credit, which offers buyers a tax credit equal to 30% of the purchase cost of a used EV up to $4,000, and only applies to used vehicles that are sold for less than $25,000 and more than two years old. (There are a handful of limitations here. Outlined on pages 388-391.)
7.The new credit system would not take effect until January 1, 2023. If you buy an EV before the bill is signed, you’re eligible for the current rebate system even if the vehicle isn’t delivered until 2023. Any existing contracts under the current system will remain valid.
Yes, but what does it all mean?
“I think they’re mostly steps in the right direction, at least with the EV subsidies part,” said John Helveston, a researcher at George Washington University, who studies electric vehicle pricing incentives.
Overall, the proposed legislation takes quite a few strides toward making EVs more affordable and easier to sell. The introduction of the used vehicle credit, especially, may expand the EV market to a much wider swath of the middle class.
“The used [car] market is more than twice as big,” says Helveston. “If there’s 17 million new cars, there's like 40 million used cars sold every year. And the only way you're going to get EVs in the hands of people who aren't super rich is through that used market.”
Restricting the used vehicle credit to sales under $25,000 is a strange choice. It makes sense that legislators don’t want this being used as a loophole for luxury car sales, but a 2-year-old Tesla Model 3 would easily sell above $25,000. A limit of $40,000 or $50,000, might have a broader impact as used EVs will soon hover around that price point
Removing the 200,000 manufacturer cap is also huge, as it swaps a carrot for a stick. Now the best best-selling EVs are again eligible for the rebates, instead of being punished for their success.
It's also easy to see that there are a bunch of provisions aimed at making sure the money goes to people who actually need it. Capping the price of eligible vehicles and setting buyer income limits means that rebates won’t go to ultra-luxury cars being purchased by people who hardly need the help. Transitioning the rebate from a tax return to cashback at the time of purchase may also be a boon to the middle class, as I’ve written about previously here. “If you're cutting out the high-end buyerr, based on income or the high price of the car, that's fine,” Helveston told dot.LA. “Those people will probably buy it anyway for other reasons, because they like it.”
The last big theme in the reworked legislation planis the emphasis on North American assembly. Setting thresholds that increase over time prioritizes manufacturers who have plants on this continent, while acting as a deterrent for foreign model purchases.
This is probably the biggest variable in terms of creating winners and losers on the manufacturing side, and it’s hard to say at this point if this will accelerate North American EV development, or dissuading all but the very wealthy from importing foreign cars. Either way it’s clearly aimed at protecting and growing American business. Notably, almost every major foreign manufacturer already has plants somewhere in North America, so this may be as protectionist as it initially appears.
Lifting the manufacturer cap means that Tesla and GM are big winners here. Not all of their cars will qualify, but many will.
The base model Ford F-150 Lightning should also qualify. Chevy is a winner because the 2023 Bolt starts at $27,200 MSRP, meaning the car drops below the 20k threshold after rebate. That’s pretty good. The upcoming Chevy Blazer, Equinox, and Silverado will also all meet the manufacturing requirements, at least.
Volkswagen, Polestar, Kia, and Hyundai. Cars from these manufacturers won’t qualify unless/until they move assembly to North America. Volkswagen and Hyundai are planning to open US assembly plants, but they may not come online for months or even years, which would put the companies at a disadvantage in the short term. Kia and Hyundai do have U.S. manufacturing plants, but they’re not currently configured to produce EVs.
What’s up with the SoCal companies?
Rivian should be largely unaffected. Both the base model R1S and R1T sneak in below the $80k cap, and both models are assembled in North America. Higher spec versions of the vehicles will exceed the threshold, though. The company was also nowhere near the 200,000 vehicle cap.
Mullen Automotive has yet to make a car, but its first offering, the DragonFly, will exceed the price caps substantially. For the future though, the company says it’s pleased with the language of the legislation. “[O]ur Mullen FIVE EV Crossover will most definitely qualify. This will be 100% built in the U.S. at our Tunica MS plant or another US plant that might be coming up for us,” says Jason Putnam, VP of Marketing at Mullen. “[O]ur EV Cargo VAN might also qualify. We are also in a good spot right now on the battery requirements for US material percentage.”
Faraday Future also does not yet have a car available for purchase, but its first proposed models, the FF91, will likely cost well north of $100,000, meaning the rebates won’t apply despite the company building their vehicles in Hanford, CA. It’s also unclear where their batteries are being sourced from and what their mineral supply chain looks like.
First and foremost, the legislation hasn’t passed yet, so keep checking in here for the latest details. It will also be interesting to see if manufacturers raise their prices significantly if the bill passes. And what recourse–if any–will consumers have against such a hike? Will the price caps put pressure on manufacturers to hit the $54,999 and $79,999 mark?
David Shultz is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Barbara, California. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside and Nautilus, among other publications.
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