Swedish battery company Northvolt AB has raised USD 2.75 billion (EUR 2.26bn) in a private placement to fund the deployment of more battery cell production capacity and research efforts in response to growing demand.
The company will expand the capacity of its first gigafactory in Skelleftea, Sweden, from the earlier plan of 40 GWh a year to 60 GWh to meet greater demand from key customers such as Volkswagen Group (ETR:VOW3), which earlier this year placed a USD-14-billion order.
The factory will start production later in 2021.
The funding round was co-led by new investors Sweden’s AP 1-4 pension funds and Canadian pension fund OMERS, along with existing investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Volkswagen. Current shareholders AMF, ATP, Baillie Gifford, Baron Capital Group, Bridford Investments Ltd, Compagnia di San Paolo through Fondaco Growth, Cristina Stenbeck, Daniel Ek, IMAS Foundation, EIT InnoEnergy, Norrsken VC, PCS Holding, Scania and Stena Metall Finans also took part in the capital raise.
Volkswagen said it is contributing USD 620 million and will in this way keep its stake in the battery company at about 20%.
Through 4 to 1 Investments KB, the Swedish National Pension (AP) funds (AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4), are investing USD 400 million.
Northvolt has now secured more than USD 6.5 billion in equity and debt to back plans for up to and beyond 150 GWh of annual production capacity in Europe by 2030. It expects to build at least two more gigafactories in Europe over the coming decade, the next potentially being in Germany.
The company has received more than USD 27 billion of orders from customers including BMW, Fluence, Scania and Volkswagen.
“This is a new European industry in the making and it will require significant investments over the coming decade. It is encouraging to see that the investor community has identified the opportunity early, and we hope to see more investments throughout the value chain over the coming years,” said Northvolt chief financial officer Alexander Hartman.
EIT InnoEnergy said that Northvolt is a cornerstone in Europe’s ambition to create an annual EUR-250-billion battery value chain by 2025.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.821)
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!
Image by Northvolt AB (northvolt.com)
