ActaCell, a US-based maker of lithium-ion batteries for vehicles backed by Applied Materials’ corporate venturing unit, has won $3m in research funding from the government.
The three-year project will cost $6.2m to produce more of its batteries. The US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Technology Innovation Program in total gave more than $22m to nine research projects targeting innovative manufacturing technologies in fields ranging from biopharmaceuticals and electronics to renewable energy sources and energy storage and have to be more than matched by private sources.
The other winners were Isogenis, Engineered BioPharmaceuticals, Arsenal Medical, Kent Displays, Precision BioSciences, Ginkgo BioWorks, Sinmat and Polyera.
ActaCell raised $5.8m in July 2008 from Applied Ventures and venture capital firms DFJ Mercury and Good Energies as well as Google.org’s RechargeIT programme to cut carbon dioxide.