Nyobolt: leading the charge in the battery charging revolution

Nyobolt spun out from Cambridge University in 2019, with a mission to advance the development of battery technology to enable the rapid charging of a range of applications, from electric vehicles to industrial robots.

Backed by 10 years of university research, Nyobolt’s global team of scientists, engineers, and industry experts is seeking to bring about a paradigm shift in energy storage systems; breaking new ground in the development of materials and systems that can deliver scalable, high-performance batteries.

Nyobolt was co-founded by CEO Dr Sai Shivareddy and Professor Clare Grey, with the aim of bringing the charging time of batteries in line with the refuelling speed of petrol-driven vehicles. Professor Grey is an award-winning academic with a background in chemistry, having won numerous accolades in the field of energy and life sciences.¹ Shivareddy’s career has been devoted to finding seamless solutions for energy storage and retrieval, including work on ground-breaking battery concepts.²

“There is a big problem at the heart of the energy transition,” says Shivareddy. “The power that you would need to recharge electric batteries in minutes is at least 10 times the power of what is possible with today's batteries,” he explains.

“Nyobolt is making high energy density batteries that can enable the electrification of applications for which there isn’t currently a solution,” says Shivareddy. “We are working on electrifying hard-to-electrify applications, such as heavy-duty machines, and mining equipment that consumes a lot of diesel. Trucks, for example, consume significant quantities of diesel³, so finding battery solutions to power them is very challenging,” he explains.

In order to transform the battery industry’s approach to developing faster and more advanced batteries, Shivareddy and his team needed to turn their scientific research into a viable business proposition. This was the impetus for founding Nyobolt.

Fortunately, the university spinout’s experience and expertise made it well-placed to lead the charge in a new era of energy storage technology. But starting a new business is challenging, especially one based on innovative technologies developed within academia. And Nyobolt was no exception. The fledgling tech company had to struggle with limited resources in the early days. In order to expand it needed investment, and a banking solution that could support its growth goals.

Nyobolt partnered with HSBC UK four years ago, when they began scaling up their business, and received Series A venture capital financing in 2021. “We were looking for structures that would help us operate globally,” says Shivareddy. “Partnering with an established institution like HSBC made that easier.”

This kind of banking support is important for spinouts; transitioning from a new technology to a commercially viable product requires investment in prototypes that can be taken to market worldwide. “When we began scaling up Nyobolt, we needed a partner who understood the challenge of building a global business,” says Shivareddy.

“University spinouts like Nyobolt are an important source of innovation in the UK, but they need support to make the shift from concept to commercial success story,” says Leo Jones, Head of Education & Not for Profit Organisations, HSBC UK. “We offer a dedicated university spinout proposition that understands the unique banking needs of spinouts and can connect them with the wider commercialisation ecosystem.”

Early-stage spinout businesses need to find an ecosystem of partnerships that can support their commercialisation journey and provide access to talent, facilities and capital. Even a step as supposedly simple as opening up a new bank account can be challenging. This is because spinouts are often in a pre-revenue phase at the point of founding. This can lead to some banks designating them as small business, when in fact they are at a more advanced stage of development.

HSBC UK is a bank that understands that spinouts offer significant growth potential and need unique solutions for their long-term goals. This means providing them with a dedicated relationship manager to ensure they get the support they need to make their concept a commercial success story. Spinouts like Nyobolt can benefit from introductions to potential investors, industry peers, and access to international banking solutions thanks to HSBC UK’s extensive global network. Ensuring they have the support they need to grow and expand.

After a five-year commercialisation journey, Nyobolt has expanded to a global team of 110 people and has begun production on a potentially groundbreaking battery solution – an EV car that can recharge in five minutes, launching their rapid-charging electric car battery in 2024.

“A challenge tech companies face is that they are mainly focussed on developing the technology and products and it can take a long time to start generating revenue,” says Shivareddy. “Spinouts have different requirements than other businesses. Having a banking partner that understands this is very useful.”

¹https://nyobolt.com/about-us/
²https://nyobolt.com/about-us/
³https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10308