Finance Yorkshire backs battery technology company

17th February 2014

Sheffield-based battery technology company Faradion is set to scale up its activities following further investment from Finance Yorkshire.

Faradion, based at the Kroto Innovation Centre, was founded to develop low-cost, sodium-ion battery technology capable of reducing the cost of energy storage in a range of applications related to renewable energy, stationary storage and transportation. Finance Yorkshire has made a follow on investment in the company from its Seedcorn Fund after its first investment in Faradion three years ago. This latest round of funding also includes investment from Haldor Topsøe A/S, a global market leader in catalysis and related process technologies. Faradion's technology enables the replacement of lithium in lithium-ion batteries with the more commonly available, sustainable and much less expensive metal sodium without impacting adversely on any of the key performance characteristics of current large scale batteries. From a cost point of view, this makes the technology highly interesting in a wide range of industrial applications. Chris Wright, Chief Executive at Faradion, said: -This latest investment from Finance Yorkshire marks a significant contribution to enabling us to further develop our technology as well as scale up production of our next-generation battery materials. -Future users of our technology will be able to secure high quality materials in commercial volumes at competitive prices. Ashwin Kumaraswamy, Investment Director at Finance Yorkshire, said: -We were the founding investors in Faradion and we are delighted to be making this follow on investment in a company which has developed so strongly since its launch. -Haldor Topsøe's involvement further strengthens our investment philosophy of backing quality management teams to address large but specific market requirements. The investment will enable Faradion to gain customer traction by licensing its technology in the very near future. Finance Yorkshire provides Seedcorn, Loan and Equity Linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2million, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses meet the gaps in the market for the funding they need for growth and development. To date Finance Yorkshire has made 513 investments totalling over £62 million. Finance Yorkshire has been developed as a European JEREMIE* initiative and is capitalised by grants from UK Government (£15m), European Regional Development Fund (£30m) and finance from the European Investment Bank (£45m).