Battery maker Northvolt raised $1.2 billion to advance its expansion plans in Europe and North America, the company said Tuesday. The latest funding is an extension of the $1.1 billion convertible note signed in July 2022.
Northvolt says it secured over $9 billion in total equity and debt to help fulfill over $55 billion in battery orders from BMW, Volvo Cars, Volkswagen Group, Fluence and Scania.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Folksam Group, Baillie Gifford, Volkswagen Group and others have participated in the $2.3 billion convertible note round.
Sweden-based Northvolt was co-founded in 2016 by former Tesla executives Peter Carlsson and Paolo Cerruti. Carlsson was formerly Tesla’s chief procurement officer, while Cerruti previously served as vice president of global supply chain and operations planning at the electric automaker. Northvolt aims to become a major auto industry supplier of battery cells and related systems.
The battery maker currently develops lithium-metal battery cell technology at its research and& development facilities in Västerås, Sweden, and San Leandro, California. Battery cell manufacturing is ramping up at the company's Ett gigafactory in Skellefteå, Sweden. Northvolt is also developing projects in Sweden, Germany and Portugal.
Northvolt aims to use 50% recycled materials for battery cell production by 2030. The company says its fully automated recycling process can recover roughly 95% of materials from used batteries. Northvolt is targeting 150 GWh of annual cell production by 2030.
In May 2022, Northvolt began recycling operations at its plant in Fredrikstad, Norway — Europe’s largest EV battery recycling plant with the capacity to process 12,000 tons of battery packs annually.
Northvolt is also building a giga-scale recycling plant adjacent to its factory in Skellefteå, slated to begin operations later this year.
