Nyobolt Hits $1B Valuation with Ultra-Fast-Charging Batteries for Robotics and Data Centers

Following a quiet week for new deals, the industry is back at it with a surge of capital flowing into some of the most active sectors. Earlier this week, Wave energy startup Panthalassa raised $140 million in a round led by Peter Thiel to perform AI inference computing at sea using nodes powered by ocean waves. This week also saw fresh funding for more conventional data center infrastructure, as Nyobolt and Skeleton Technologies announced later-stage rounds for data center backup power solutions.

Meanwhile, Redwood Materials is not the only company securing significant capital for second-life EV battery systems—Moment Energy just raised $40 million to pursue a similar approach. Elsewhere, investors backed efforts to rebuild domestic magnesium production and gave a boost to green cement startup Terra CO2.

Nyobolt’s Ultra-Fast-Charging Batteries Fuel $1 Billion Valuation

Cambridge-based Nyobolt, a startup spun out of University of Cambridge research in 2019, has become the latest battery company to reach a $1 billion valuation. The company’s expansion into the data center market has fueled excitement around its technology, which is based on a modified lithium-ion chemistry featuring an anode made from niobium tungsten oxide.

Nyobolt’s batteries can charge to 80% in less than five minutes and offer a cycle life that’s 10 times longer than conventional lithium-ion batteries, all while eliminating the risk of fire. The company has now raised a $60 million Series C round, following what it describes as a period of “rapid commercial momentum.” Revenue has increased five-fold year-over-year as customers in the robotics and data center industries have adopted its technology.

Symbotic Leads $60 Million Series C Round

Symbotic, an autonomous robotics company and existing Nyobolt customer, led the latest funding round. Previously, Symbotic relied on supercapacitors to power its robots, but Nyobolt’s batteries provide six times more energy capacity in a lighter package. This allows warehouse robots to operate around the clock for retailers like Walgreens, Target, and Kroger.

Expansion into Data Centers and AI Workloads

Nyobolt is now targeting data center customers, positioning its technology as a fast-acting solution for sudden power surges common in large-scale artificial intelligence workloads. It also serves as a temporary backup power solution during outages. While the company has no confirmed domestic data center customers yet, it has a nonbinding agreement with the Indian state of Rajasthan to deploy over 100 megawatts of off-grid AI data center and power management infrastructure as part of a broader push to expand its presence across the country.

Shift in Focus from Electric Vehicles

Notably, Nyobolt’s press release did not mention plans to sell its technology to electric vehicle automakers, despite this being a central focus in the past. As recently as last summer, executive vice president Ramesh Narasimhan told the BBC that he hoped Nyobolt’s batteries would “transform the experience of owning an EV.” While the company’s technology does enable extremely fast charging, its underlying chemistry may not be optimized for the demands of EV applications.