Oxford University battery management spinout raises $10.5m funding
University of Oxford spinout Brill Power, which makes a battery management system capable of increasing battery life by 60 per cent, has raised $10.5 million in Series A funding.
The funding will be used to aid team growth, develop new products, and expand the firm’s presence in the automotive sectors and static energy storage.
New investors Legal & General Capital and Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital Programme led the investment round, which was supported by existing Brill investors Oxford Science Enterprises, Oxford Investment Consultants and Oxford University. Shell Ventures and Climate KIC have also become shareholders.
Dr Christoph Birkl, Brill Power’s CEO said, “We have a ground-breaking commercial product in the marketplace and a pipeline of new developments and products to address the stationary energy storage and automotive markets. Our progress and our potential has attracted an impressive cadre of both existing and new investors.”
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Battery management systems (BMS) ensure batteries operate safely and effectively and are characterised as being active or passive.
According to Brill, active balancing battery management systems are pricey and not sufficiently scalable for mass application, whereas more affordable passive balancing solutions introduce operating inefficiencies and safety considerations into battery control.
Brill Power’s Active Loading method uses its own algorithms that determine the state of health and power capability of every parallel-connected cell block in the battery with novel control circuitry to regulate current.
Stronger cell blocks are exposed to higher currents and weaker ones to lower currents to ensure maximum energy extraction from each individual cell during discharge cycles. Consequently, no single cell becomes the limiting factor in energy storage capacity, power capability or lifetime of the battery.
Birkl continued: “We now have the means to act on the opportunity to offer the market a step-change in improvements for zero-emissions technologies - for the benefit of our investors, our customers and also the community we serve.”
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