Swedish gigafactory Northvolt is Europe’s best-funded climate tech, having drawn in $15bn from the likes of BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Baillie Gifford.
Northvolt’s founding team started the company in 2015, after leaving Tesla, where they’d worked on securing a supply chain for the EV maker.
Now Northvolt alumni are themselves starting to launch new companies. The battery maker had 6,500 employees at the end of June this year.
Although its Europe's best-funded climate tech, Northvolt has faced a number of hurdles this year: it lost a €2m battery order from BMW; scrapped one of its factories and announced a strategic review into its other sites.
Startups founded by former Northvolt employees
Cling Systems
William Bergh did an internship at Northvolt in 2019 and then completed his Master’s thesis at the company, where he looked into the logistics of recycling lithium-ion batteries.
In 2020, Bergh went on to found Cling Systems, a marketplace where companies can buy and sell used batteries, either to use again or to recycle.
Cling went through the Norrsken Impact Accelerator in 2021 and has raised $4.4m in total.
Nrlyze
Nrlyze uses AI to adjust settings with a building’s heating systems. The company says the tech could lead to a 20% reduction in CO2 footprint.
Founder Lars Hansson worked at Northvolt until 2019 as director of development engineering. Nrlyze was founded in 2021.
Rebaba
Rebaba builds energy storage systems, using repurposed electric vehicle batteries, with the aim of greening the electricity grid.
Cofounder Felix Kruse previously worked as a supply chain analyst at Northvolt, and cofounder Paula Runsten did an internship at the Swedish battery maker.
Enerpoly
Zinc-ion battery manufacturer Enerpoly opened its first factory near Stockholm this week. Although its founders aren’t Northvolt alums, Enerpoly’s nabbed Northvolt’s former head of manufacturing Annika Werneman earlier this year, along with two other former employees.
Enerpoly’s raised €13.5m in grants and €2m in equity, which it has landed from Swedish angel investors.
Tether
Luis Medina Rivas did a six-month internship at Northvolt in 2021, after which he founded Barcelona-based Tether. The company aggregates the electrical capacity of parked EVs to help reinforce the grid.
Infinion
Peter Qvarfordt spent nearly four years at Northvolt as director of its recycling strategies. In June last year he cofounded Infinion, which specialises in the recycling of lithium-ion batteries.
Volta Greentech
Frederik Akerman cofounded Volta Greentech a few months after completing an internship at Northvolt in 2018. Volta’s working on a feed additive for cows which reduces the amount of methane they produce.
Northvolt’s CEO, Peter Carlsson, wrote an early angel cheque for Volta, which has raised $6.4m in total.
Peak Energy
Northvolt has spawned companies across the pond too. Landan Mossburg, hired from Tesla, spent four years at Northvolt as its chief automation officer. He’s now the founder and CEO of US-based Peak Energy, which is focused on scaling up existing battery technology.
Peak, which is based in Colorado, raised a $55m Series A in July this year.
Northvolt’s alums in stealth
There are also a few former Northvolters building companies in stealth.
Shahin Ghazinouri worked as a senior director of digitalisation at Northvolt until April this year. Since then, Ghazinouri’s LinkedIn says he's the cofounder of a stealth startup.
Similarly, Anna Tidstam, formerly vice president of digitalisation at Northvolt, is also listed on LinkedIn as founder of a stealth startup, as of April this year.
