Silicon Valley-based materials company Lyten has raised $200 million (1.92 billion kronor) to help fund a string of acquisitions from the administrator of the collapsed battery firm, Northvolt.
The latest deal sees Lyten take over Northvolt’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) portfolio, which was based in Stockholm. This includes the rights to several products – among them, the Voltpack Mobile System (VMS), Voltrack, and other storage systems still under development.
It’s the third publicised deal between the two companies in less than a year. In November 2024, Lyten acquired Cuberg – a Northvolt-owned battery manufacturing site in California.
Then in July this year, it bought Northvolt Dwa, the huge energy storage factory in Gdansk, Poland, which had been billed as the largest of its kind in Europe.
Lyten, which specialises in lithium-sulphur battery technology and 3D graphene materials, has been positioning itself as a serious player in the energy storage and EV battery market - just as Northvolt faces a wave of financial and structural difficulties.
However, Lyten, according to The Information news service, has recently laid off 45 of its 300 employees, with cuts primarily affecting parts of its research department. These reductions are attributed to the high costs associated with operating Northvolt's former factory in Gdańsk, Poland.
Lyten is a company focused on lithium-sulphur batteries, an experimental technology now finding applications in areas like military drones.
Lyten, like many in the battery industry, has broadened its focus beyond electric vehicles. The company is now exploring other applications such as AI data centres, energy storage, drones, and robots.
In addition to the Gdańsk facility, Lyten acquired Northvolt's subsidiary Cuberg in California last November. In December, the company secured preliminary approval for a $650 million loan from the US Export-Import Bank.
Notably, Lyten has also reportedly submitted a bid for Northvolt's main factory in Skellefteå. Keith Norman, Lyten's marketing manager, told The Information that the recent lay-offs are part of a broader reorganisation following the acquisition of Northvolt's factories.
He stated that the company is now focused on rapidly scaling up its European production.