BMW i Ventures announced an investment in Our Next Energy Inc. (ONE), a Michigan-based energy storage solutions company working to develop longer range, lower cost batteries for electric vehicles.
“Our Next Energy is working to fundamentally reinvent the battery while focusing on sustainability, safety and cost; three key factors which will help speed the development and adoption of battery electric vehicles,” said Baris Guzel, partner at BMW i Ventures. “We are convinced that Our Next Energy has the potential to truly transform the space, and we could not be more excited to join their journey.”
ONE has demonstrated two proprietary technologies – the first, called “Aries”, uses Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry in an advanced structural cell to pack architecture reaching very high cell to pack ratios and system level energy density. This results in an increase in battery range and decrease in costs while eliminating nickel and cobalt based chemistries. The second, dubbed “Gemini,” uses ONE’s proprietary energy management system and chemistry in a dual battery range extender architecture.
“BMW i Ventures has a proven track record of successful collaboration with startups with leading technologies to shape future mobility,” said Mujeeb Ijaz, CEO and Founder of Our Next Energy. “We are excited to collaborate with Baris and his team as we work to demonstrate our core technologies.”
Our Next Energy will use the investment to scale production of its first products.
BMW i Ventures, BMW’s EUR 500 million venture capital fund, invests money and resources in startups in the fields of autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud, e-mobility, artificial Intelligence and data, industry 4.0, shared and on-demand mobility, customer digital life, and energy services.
BMW i Ventures has already entered into strategic partnerships with innovative providers such as Scoop, Zirx, RiceCell, Chargepoint, Life360, Moovit, JustPark, DSP Concepts, Chargemaster, Zendrive, Rever Moto, STRIVR, Desktop Metal, BUS.com, Proterra, Xometry, Caroobi, GaN Systems, Shift, May Mobility, Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, Vera, Mapillary, Claroty, Graphcore, Tekion, Yellowbrick Data, Recogni, Cartica AI, Trifacta, CelLink, GenXComm, Kodiak Robotics and many more
