Mitra Chem, an AI-enabled battery materials innovator in Silicon Valley, is receiving a boost through a $60 million Series B financing round led by General Motors. Utilizing their AI-powered platform and advanced R&D facility, located in Mountain View, California, Mitra Chem will aid GM in accelerating the development of cost-effective electric vehicle batteries.
Collaboratively, GM and Mitra Chem will work on advancing iron-based cathode active materials, such as lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP), to power affordable EV batteries compatible with GM’s Ultium Platform. By investing in Mitra Chem, GM aims to bolster the company’s operations, enabling them to scale up and expedite introducing its innovative battery materials to the market.
“This is a strategic investment that will further help reinforce GM’s efforts in EV batteries, accelerate our work on affordable battery chemistries like LMFP and support our efforts to build a U.S.-focused battery supply chain,” said Gil Golan, GM vice president Technology Acceleration and Commercialisation. “GM is accelerating larger investments in critical subdomains of battery technology, like cell chemistry, components, and advanced cell production processes. Mitra Chem’s labs, methods, and talent will fit well with our R&D team’s work.”
Mitra Chem’s battery research and development facility possesses the capability to simulate, synthesize, and evaluate numerous cathode designs every month. These processes contribute to drastically reducing the learning cycles, thereby expediting the introduction of new battery cell formulas to the market.
Mitra Chem relies on an advanced ‘atoms-to-tons acceleration platform’ within their laboratory, leveraging simulations and physics-based machine learning models to expedite the discovery of formulations, optimize cathode synthesis, evaluate cell lifespan, and streamline the process scale-up. Their proprietary cloud platform, specifically tailored for battery cathode development, automates data integration from various synthesis methods, material characterization, cell prototyping, and standardized analyses, providing comprehensive insights and visualizations.
“GM’s investment in Mitra Chem will not only help us develop affordable battery chemistries for use in GM vehicles but also will fuel our mission to develop, deploy and commercialize U.S. made, iron-based cathode materials that can power EVs, grid-scale electrified energy storage and beyond,” said Mitra Chem CEO and co-founder Vivas Kumar.