ONE, A $1.2 Billion Electric Vehicle Battery Maker, Raises $300 Million

Our Next Energy (ONE), a battery startup based in Michigan, announced Wednesday that it has secured a $300 million Series B fundraising round, valuing the three-year-old company at $1.2 billion.

The most recent investment round, led by Franklin Templeton and Fifth Wall, makes Our Next Energy one of the most valuable privately held battery companies in the United States.

ONE is providing prototypes of its Aries I battery pack to various companies for testing, and plans to begin manufacturing Aries II lithium iron phosphate cells at a new facility in Van Buren Township, southeast Michigan, next year, according to ONE's chief executive Mujeeb Ijaz.

Ijaz stated that the plant's initial capacity will be around 2 gigawatt-hours, increasing to 10 GWh by 2026 and 20 GWh by 2027. Eventually, the plant will make Aries II packs and have a prototype line for the dual-chemistry Gemini cells, which ONE plans to begin manufacturing in 2026.

Ijaz stated that the company is evaluating the possibility of constructing a second building on the Van Buren site, as well as the necessity for a second location based on customer demand.

Additionally, ONE is in negotiations with possible North American suppliers of battery raw materials, which might enable the company and its clients to take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act incentives.

Temasek, Coatue, Riverstone Holdings, AI Capital Partners, and Sente Ventures are among the latest investors.

"These are the types of investors who are less concerned with the current economic climate than they are with this century-long shift to electricity," Ijaz explained.

In the Series B round, BMW iVentures, Assembly Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Volta Energy Technologies, Flex (NASDAQ:FLEX), and Coatue completed a convertible note for $62.5 million.