A venture-backed Oklahoma company hoping to innovate batteries has raised $5 million in Series A financing for new research and development facilities, as well as a manufacturing plant to produce battery materials.
With the funds, Ten-Nine Technologies will build out its engineering, business development and managerial team.
The investment was led by i2E Management Company and includes $1.65 million from the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund, as well as $500,000 from the Accelerate Oklahoma Fund and $350,000 from the Oklahoma Angel Fund. Those funds are managed by i2E.
Regional investors provided $2.5 million to close out the round.
Ten-Nine Technologies CEO Paige Johnson, a research chemist and nanotechnology inventor, founded the company in 2014 to develop new materials for emerging economies. She describes the company’s mission as “changing the world from the nanoscale up by thinking differently about the electroactive materials that power it.”
In 2017, she received the Battery Innovation Center award for the development of hydrocarbon parity lithium battery technology.
Ten-Nine Technologies’ proprietary materials, manufacturing procedures and batteries are the subject of four issued patents and 15 additional national and international patent filings.
By using nanomaterials developed and produced by the Tulsa company, battery life could be extended.
“Batteries are a foundational technology of modern life, but have not kept pace with other innovations in sustainable energy and advanced electronics,” Johnson said. “New materials and new approaches are needed to power the electric future, and Ten-Nine is proud and excited to be a part of that, especially in our home state of Oklahoma.”
According to an i2E news release, the addition of Series A funding to its balance sheet will accelerate manufacturing, market entry and adoption of Ten-Nine Technologies’ innovative battery materials as well as provide new jobs and opportunities for Oklahomans.
This article was originally published by The Oklahoman.