Qld battery tech company raises $3.7m, attracts ‘guru’ investors

Queensland battery materials start-up Nano Nouvelle has successfully closed a $3.7 million funding round, after its promising battery electrode technology attracted the interest of several high profile cleantech investors.

According to a company statement, investment was led by existing shareholder Terra Rossa Capital, with the substantial participation of well known cleantech supporters Simon Hackett and Bradley Maguire, together with nine other new and existing investors.

Nano-Nouvelle’s “Nanode” – which is working towards commercialisation from being purely conceptual in 2011 – is a three-dimensional nano-structured, porous electrode aimed at overcoming the limitations of current batteries, by allowing them to charge faster and last longer than current commercial competitors.

The technology, which is currently being tested in-house, has potential for a broad range of applications, including micro-hybrid energy storage and grid smoothing, as well as the mobile phone and tablet market.

It appealed to tech guru (and Tesla owner) Hackett for its potential to fast charge batteries in electric cars and in personal electronic devices.

“Nano-Nouvelle’s disruptive technology could change the way that we interact with battery-operated electronic devices,” Hackett said in a statement on Wednesday. Hackett has also invested in Queensland battery storage developer RedFlow, and is taking his Adelaide offices off-grid.

“The (Nano-Nouvelle) team understands this problem space very well and they are well advanced on the path to realising their vision,” he said.

Nano-Nouvelle was also awarded a top gong in the Investment Category of the annual IC Business Pitch Competition on the Sunshine Coast last August.

Judges were reportedly impressed by CEO Stephanie Moroz’s investment pitch, which they said clearly outlined a scalable business with innovative intellectual property, global licencing opportunities and a clear exit strategy.

Terra Rossa Capital, which first invested in Nano-Nouvelle back in 2011, said the company had continued to impress, and was now “progressing commercial relationships with the leading players in the global battery industry.”

Nano-Nouvelle says it will put the funding towards collaborations with customers, developing manufacturing processes, and ongoing product development.