Montana-based nickel-zinc battery start-up ZAF Energy Systems has secured a US$600,000 investment to boost production and recruitment.
ZAF said Missouri’s Department of Economic Development (DED) Fund had awarded the funds— of which it has already received a first instalment of US$300,000 as part of the state’s Venture Capital Co-Investment Program.
ZAF’s CEO Randy Moore, said the investment would spur “additional production capability… which will enable ZAF to meet growing customer demand, which will accelerate licensing and joint venture negotiations and commercialise NiZn batteries on a global scale.”
And Moore revealed the company now has “demand for over a million batteries in what we call soft backlog, meaning that customers have told us that when the manufacturing capacity is available, that’s the quantity they will order”.
According to ZAF, NiZn batteries “are poised to disrupt the US$50 billion conventional lead-acid battery market with their ability to provide twice the storage capacity and three times the power of legacy lead-acid batteries in a smaller, lighter package”.
BEST Battery Briefing reported last year that ZAF had opened a second production facility to “dramatically expand” capacity.