Holyvolt, a battery materials discovery company, has raised $45 million in funding from investors, including Zone II, CC.VC, and angel investors from the financial sector. Its existing investors include Fifth Wall.

Holyvolt’s Discovery Engine combines proprietary AI models with automated laboratories to develop and test battery materials. The platform uses the results to refine its predictions and identify materials for further testing.

The Discovery Engine builds on a testing platform developed by Wildcat Discovery Technologies, which merged with Holyvolt in 2026. Wildcat built a high-throughput lab that automates physical tests of thousands of battery materials in parallel. Over the last 18 years, the platform is said to have run more than 225 projects for more than 85 customers across the battery value chain.

The company will use the funding to expand its AI capabilities, laboratory capacity, and scientific team. It also plans to advance the commercialization of its nickel- and cobalt-free disordered rocksalt (DRX) cathode materials, designed to achieve high energy density without nickel or cobalt. Holyvolt plans to begin commercializing its DRX cathode materials in 2027.

“AI can propose a new battery material in seconds, but only real-world experiments can tell you whether it works, and that data is the bottleneck for AI in battery discovery,” said Mathias Ingvarsson, Holyvolt’s founder and CEO. “We have nearly two decades of battery test data that would take a long time to recreate. Our automated lab already delivers results 10 times faster than conventional R&D, and closing the loop with AI lets us move 100 times faster. The West can’t wait a decade for its next battery chemistry, and this funding lets us move now.”

According to Mercom’s 1H 2026 Funding and M&A for Energy Storage report, VC funding for energy storage companies in 1H 2026 totaled $1.6 billion across 51 deals, representing a 6% YoY decline compared to the $1.7 billion raised across 36 deals in 1H 2025.