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(Bloomberg) — Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB raised $2.75 billion in its biggest financing round yet to help fund expanded production capacity and maintain a leadership position in Europe’s burgeoning battery industry.
The supplier to manufacturers including Volkswagen AG and BMW AG announced the private placement in a statement Wednesday. It was co-led by Swedish pension funds AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4 and Omers Capital Markets, alongside existing investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management and VW Group.
The company founded by former executives from Tesla Inc. has an unrivaled position at the front of European efforts to build a domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries. However, as other projects in the region are gathering pace, Northvolt will need to step up its plans to reach a target of having a 25% market share in Europe by 2030. The funds raised in the latest financing round will be used to expand annual capacity at the Northvolt Ett factory in Skelleftea, Sweden, to 60 gigawatt hours, from an earlier target of 40 GWh.
“We have a solid base of world-class investors and customers on-board who share Northvolt’s mission of building the world’s greenest battery to enable the European transition to renewable energy,” Northvolt Chief Executive Officer Peter Carlsson said in the statement.
The Skelleftea plant will be the company’s first large-scale manufacturing facility, churning out cells by the end of this year.
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