Singapore-headquartered lithium-metal battery developer SES closed a $139m series D round on Monday led by automotive manufacturer General Motors (GM).
The round included Applied Ventures, the investment arm of semiconductor technology provider Applied Materials, as well as carmaker SAIC Motor, conglomerate SK Group, Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek and its Vertex Ventures subsidiary.
SES is developing lithium-metal (li-metal) battery technology for use in systems such as electric vehicles and drones. The company, which was formerly known as SolidEnergy Systems, was spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012.
The round comes after SES formed a joint development agreement with GM last month that will involve them building a manufacturing prototyping line for a pre-production battery by 2023.
Qichao Hu, founder and chief executive of SES, said: “This new round of funding will help accelerate technology development, significantly expand our technical, business and manufacturing teams and expedite the commercialisation of li-metal batteries.”
SES received $34m from undisclosed investors to close its series C round in January 2018 it said increased its total funding to $50m. It then picked up $28.9m from five unspecified investors in November of that year, according to a regulatory filing.
GM had led a $12m series B round for SES in 2016 that also featured SAIC Motor, Applied Ventures and all its series A investors, following $6.7m from unnamed backers the year before. It also identified SK as an existing investor in the latest round.