Housed in a scruffy gray building on the north shore of Seattle’s Lake Union is a next-gen battery startup with a potentially game changing product.
Ecellix is working with silicon anode technology that in lab tests can boost battery power by 30-50% compared to traditional lithium ion batteries while also lasting longer than many other technologies. And it uses less expensive materials to build its silicon anodes than its next-gen competition.
“It’s simple, inexpensive and highly scalable,” said CEO Jerry Schwartz.
Schwartz and his son Jason launched Ecellix in 2018. The product they’re aiming to commercialize brings together technologies developed at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Washington State University.
The startup has raised roughly $10 million from investors, and more than $50 million of public funding has gone into the foundational research performed at the two institutions. Ecellix holds exclusive rights to the innovations, and has continued its collaboration with PNNL and WSU.
The company has 12,000-square feet of space in the Northlake Shipyard building, located in a cluster of maritime industrial operations. The space houses its offices and a research lab, and soon Ecellix will start constructing its manufacturing operations in the building’s basement. It has 15 employees.
Battery boom in Pacific Northwest
The battery sector keeps getting hotter as numerous industries clamor for better-performing power sources for electric vehicles, consumer electronics, aviation, grid energy storage and other applications. The Pacific Northwest has become a battery materials hub, with research coming from PNNL, WSU and University of Washington, and startups including Group14 Technologies, Sila and OneD Battery all setting up silicon anode manufacturing facilities in Eastern Washington.
The other companies are a couple of steps ahead of Ecellix.
Group14 and Sila are gearing up for commercial-scale production and OneD began building its pilot-scale facility last year. Group14 has also announced Porsche AG as an investor and customer and recently began shipping product from its factory in South Korea. Sila is manufacturing materials for Mercedes-Benz and Panasonic. The companies’ customers are still testing the anode materials in their batteries.
Ecellix is confident about its potential despite the pace being set by others.
“I don’t feel late to the game. The way I see it, no one has delivered yet on any large scale,” said Jason Schwartz, vice president of strategy. “I know a lot of the competitors personally and would like to see them succeed. The market is large enough for everyone.”
The silicon solution
Silicon is a desirable addition to batteries because it can store significantly more energy than the graphite that has traditionally been used in the negative end of a battery, called the anode.
Many next-gen battery materials companies create their products starting with a carbon-based material to create porous, nano-scale scaffolds and then use silane gas to coat them with silicon.
Ecellix has turned the approach inside out. It starts with a silicon compound that it etches pores into, and then bathes it with a pitch material to create a carbon coating. The company’s commercial product is called eCell.
Both strategies improve the lithium batteries’ performance, but the raw materials used by Ecellix are at least eight-times less expensive and easier to come by, according to the startup.
Silane gas, for example, is in limited supply domestically. The issue has become such a challenge that Group14 announced on Friday that it’s building a silane gas manufacturing facility to meet its own and other battery companies’ needs. The project is getting a $200 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Ecellix instead uses silicon monoxide as its feedstock, which is more readily available and has commercial uses including the production of glass and mirrors.
Leadership and funding
The company’s founders also tout the expertise and connections of their team as key assets.
Jerry Schwartz’s past roles include director of Microsoft’s Office of International Affairs and managing partner of a social purpose corporation called Global Development Partners. Jason Schwartz has a background in marketing and financial analysis.
Chief Technology Officer George Cintra was formerly CTO of long-time battery innovator EaglePicher Technologies and other battery companies. Brian Screnar, vice president of business operations and government engagement, has held leadership positions with Intellectual Ventures, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office and other federal government roles.
Other board members and advisors include battery industry veteran Bart Riley, former GM R&D director Mark Verbrugge, Brian Holloway of Intellectual Ventures, and others.
Ecellix has raised early rounds totaling roughly $10 million and led by Catalus Capital. Other investors include Alliance of Angels, E8 and Keiretsu Forum. The Ecellix team performed some of its initial research at the UW’s Washington Clean Energy Testbeds.
The startup’s leaders said they’re talking to dozens of potential customers and already planning for a commercial-scale manufacturing site, likely in Washington.
In recent years, battery materials companies collectively have pulled in more than $1 billion in venture capital.
Jerry Schwartz hopes investors are still willing to make big bets on promising, more affordable tech in the space.
“We use off-the-shelf material, so we really economize in our efforts,” he said. “And in the end, we have something that just is a very flexible application across cars, phones, planes, everything.”