The Estonian start-up Skeleton is one of the largest European manufacturers ultracapacitor-based energy storage. The products are used to power and save energy in various applications in the automotive, transportation, grid, and renewable energy industries. The cleantech solutions have caught the attention of new industrial investors and top European entrepreneurs, and the company announced this month a €41.3 million Series D funding round, bringing its total capital raised to over €93 million. The investment is in the top five funding rounds of the cleantech sector in the EU this year and will further accelerate Skeleton's growth.
Recently, Skeleton and the German Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have been developing a ground-breaking graphene battery with a 15-second charging time. The fast charging time makes the SuperBattery a perfect solution for the three main issues affecting electric vehicles: slow charging times, battery degradation, and high cost. Part of the new funding will be used to develop the new SuperBatery and help companies to reduce CO2 emissions, saving energy:
In a press-release published on the company’s website, Taavi Madiberk, CEO and co-founder of Skeleton Technologies, commented the latest achievements: “The momentum for energy transition and decarbonization of the economy is stronger than ever. I am proud to see that our investors strongly believe in our vision and we now have new world-class mix of industrial companies and experienced startup leadership behind us. Their experience will now help us scale and aggressively grow. We have the right products to capture a dominant market share in the ultracapacitor industry globally.”
Skeleton’s products are already on the market and, despite COVID-19, the company will see three-fold revenue growth for the second year in a row. The company acquired major new clients in the last months, including a world leader in renewable energy production and a leading hydrogen bus manufacturer. The total commercial backlog is currently over €150 million.
Taavi Madiberk added: Our ultracapacitors have four times the power density of Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA), the clear competitive advantage is not only proven by our blue chip customer base ranging from German automotive to leading truck OEMs, grid integrators to the European Space Agency, but also by an independent study backed by the US Office of Naval Research and we have a clear roadmap to further increase our competitive advantage and increase both the energy and the power density of our products.”
Skeleton Technologies received a Phase 2 Grant from the European Innovation Council in 2016. The aim of the EIC-funded project was the development and scale-up of a cost-effective technology for synthesizing Curved Graphene, a proprietary microporous carbon for ultracapacitors. Curved Graphene has enabled Skeleton Technologies to enter the highly competitive energy storage market with applications such as kinetic energy recovery systems in transportation, decreasing fuel consumption and carbon emissions by more than 30% for buses and trucks.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.