Cygni Energy, a Hyderabad-based lithium-ion battery maker, has raised $12.5 million in a financing round that included equity and debt. The Indian Overseas Bank led the debt round, while Meridian Global Ventures led the equity round.
The new funds will be used by the startup to support product development and business expansion. Cygni plans to expand its engineering division in order to accelerate product development cycles. It is also planning to establish a greenfield manufacturing plant in Telangana.
Cygni stated in a statement that the greenfield project can produce 40,000 batteries per month with 1.2 GigaWatt Hours of annual capacity when all lines are fully operational.
According to the startup, the Gigafactory will allow Cygni to increase its battery production and scale up the existing capacity by 4X. It will also help India’s growing demand for EVs.
There were earlier reports that Cygni planned to invest $40 Mn in the establishment of the manufacturing plant.
Cygni was founded in 2014 by Venkat Rajaraman. It has a 250 Megawatt Hour, which can produce 10,000 lithium-ion batteries per month. It has partnered with many of the top EV OEMs in India. It also provides energy storage services to energy companies.
Cygni claims it is solving problems pertaining to traditional Li-ion battery technology for mass adoption of EVs across all platforms. It has already deployed more than 125 MWh storage solutions and powered more than 60,000 EVs.
“The urgent need to improve EV battery performance, safety, and accessibility to quality products has never been greater.” “This round of financing will help us enhance our product offerings,” CEO Rajaraman stated in relation to the fundraising.
Cygni recently acquired a Telangana land parcel under the state’s EV policy in order to build the nation’s most advanced Li-ion battery manufacturing plant.
India-manufactured batteries have been in high demand due to the government’s push for EV adoption and the growing number of EVs. After recent fires involving EVs in India, the issue was made more prominent.
Cygni, a leader in this space, is currently developing products that can be used in India.
In this context, it is important to mention that Matter, India’s first liquid-cooled two-wheeler electric vehicle battery maker, also closed an equity financing round at $10 million in June in order to launch its new range of electric mobility products and energy storage products.
Under the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme, the Ministry of Heavy Industries also signed contracts for Ola Electric, Reliance New Energy and Rajesh Exports to manufacture advanced chemistry cell batteries. They are expected to establish a battery manufacturing plant with a capacity of approximately 95 GWh.