Sicona Battery Technologies raises $22m to build US factory, double staff

A start-up that produces materials used within lithium-ion batteries will double its staff headcount and build a $US400m manufacturing facility in the US after $22m capital raising.

Sicona Battery Technologies chief executive Christiaan Jordaan.

A start-up that produces materials used within lithium-ion batteries will double its staff headcount and build a $US400m ($586m) manufacturing facility in the US after it raised $22m in a series A capital raise.

Christiaan Jordaan, the chief executive of Wollongong-based Sicona Battery Technologies, described the capital raise as an incredibly hard slog, arriving at a time when numerous investors had closed their wallets and capital had become scarce.

“This was the hardest round of funding I’ve done in my life. I actually started the process in the first quarter of last year at a time when there was red across screens everywhere … it wasn’t the greatest environment to raise money in,” he told The Australian.

“It was really hard to get it over the line and to get all the investors committed. Ultimately, we were keen to raise a little more but we’re happy with the result and to land a strategic investor as our lead.”

Sicona Battery Technologies attracted close to a dozen investors to the round over its product, a silicon-composite battery anode that can increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries by 50-100 per cent, Mr Jordaan said.

Sicona-produced silicon carbon.

The start-up began fundraising in the first quarter of last year, just months after a period in which investors appeared to be deploying cheques left, right and centre.

“In the boom market of 2021, a start-up would have received that money fast, but in the tough times is where you get shaped,” Mr Jordaan said.

The start-up said it was pleased to land listed Indian chemicals company Himadri Speciality Chemical as its lead investor, with the company pouring more than $10m, a little more than 50 per cent of the round, into the ­company.

Local alternative investment fund Artesian Capital followed Himadri with a single-digit-million figure, which Sicona could not disclose. The round also received participation from AIE LP, Riverstone Ventures, Chaos Ventures, Investible Climate Tech Fund and Club Investible. On the company’s expansion, Mr Jordaan said he was now looking to hire multiple battery scientists, materials scientists, chemical and processing engineers and a business development manager and chief commercial officer.

Sicona was also on the hunt for a US country manager, who would work closely with the local BDM and oversee development of the new US facility. The start-up recently registered a US subsidiary to expand its US footprint and had a plan of having its US manufacturing facility operating on commercial scale within the first half of 2026.

A render of Sicona Battery Technologies Shellharbour project which is currently on hold.

Mr Jordaan said he could not yet share where the US facility was being developed, but the upcoming 20,000sq m facility would be in the vicinity of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

While Sicona was still looking to build a materials processing plant in Wollongong’s Port Kembla, it had paused the developer of a manufacturing plant in nearby Shellharbour as a NSW state grant it had applied for had stalled, Mr Jordaan said.

He said the company was still keen to develop the Shellharbour project and would continue to expand its local headquarters in Wollongong.