Holyvolt Raises $45M to Scale AI-Powered Discovery Engine as the West Races to Develop New Battery Materials

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 15, 2026 – The West needs new battery materials to power everything from defense and mobility to data centers and the grid, but discovering and commercializing a new battery chemistry can take years. AI is promising to speed up discovery, but the battery industry lacks consistent data and a physical environment to test it in. Holyvolt, the AI-powered battery materials discovery company, today announced $45 million in funding to close that gap, backed by Zone II,CC.VC and a handful of angels from the finance sector. Existing investors include Fifth Wall. Holyvolt’s Discovery Engine connects proprietary AI models to automated labs that build and test real battery cells, so each round of results improves the next prediction. The funding will expand Holyvolt’s AI capabilities, laboratory capacity, and scientific team, while advancing its nickel- and cobalt-free DRX cathode materials toward commercial deployment.

The Discovery Engine: Connecting AI to Real-World Experimentation

The Discovery Engine is built on a high-throughput platform developed by Wildcat Discovery Technologies, which Holyvolt merged with in 2026. Battery chemistry has an enormous number of possible combinations, and the only way to know which ones work is to build and test real cells. Founded by chemist Prof. Peter G. Schultz, Wildcat built a high-throughput lab that automates physical tests of thousands of battery materials in parallel. Over the last 18 years, the platform has run more than 225 projects for more than 85 customers across the battery value chain, including nearly a dozen Fortune 500 companies such as BMW, and has resulted in more than 100 battery patents.

Along the way, the platform generated an internally consistent dataset covering more than 500,000 physical cells tested at over 165 million cycles. Holyvolt has now built AI models on this dataset and connected them to its automated labs, enabling reinforcement learning, where the AI learns from the results of real-world experiments: the models predict which materials to test, the platform builds and cycles real cells, and every result feeds back into the models to improve the next round of predictions.

“AI can propose a new battery material in seconds, but only real-world experiments can tell you whether it works, and that data is the bottleneck for AI in battery discovery,” said Mathias Ingvarsson, founder and CEO of Holyvolt. “We have nearly two decades of battery test data that would take a long time to recreate. Our automated lab already delivers results 10 times faster than conventional R&D, and closing the loop with AI lets us move 100 times faster. The West can’t wait a decade for its next battery chemistry, and this funding lets us move now.”

DRX: Advancing a New Cathode Family

Starting October 1, 2027, the Pentagon can no longer procure batteries from CATL, BYD, and four other Chinese manufacturers, even as the U.S. military pushes to expand its use of drones. At the same time, China produces about 85% of the world’s cathode active material, underscoring the need for alternatives that can be sourced outside China.

DRX, or disordered rocksalt, is Holyvolt’s first answer to that challenge and the first material it is bringing to market from the Discovery Engine. The family of cathode materials is designed to deliver high energy density without nickel or cobalt, using raw materials that can be sourced outside China. Holyvolt plans to begin commercializing DRX in 2027, starting with defense applications before expanding into larger mobility markets.

“We can’t out-China China,” said Steven Prast, COO of Holyvolt. “Recreating China’s existing battery industry here isn’t the answer. We have to invent better materials and processes and make them in the West. DRX proves what the Discovery Engine can do, and it’s only the beginning.”

Built to Lead The Next Battery Era

Holyvolt is headquartered in Stockholm, with operations in San Diego and Munich. Its San Diego facility combines battery research, materials development, and pilot production under one roof, and all DRX development happens there. The leadership team brings the experience of scaling companies, factories, and battery materials. CEO Mathias Ingvarsson helped scale Tempur-Pedic International through its NYSE listing and later served as President of Europe; COO Steven Prast held manufacturing and automation leadership roles at Tesla; and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Dee Strand brings more than 25 years of battery materials R&D.

Learn more about Holyvolt and the future of AI-powered battery materials discovery at holyvolt.com.

About Holyvolt

Holyvolt  is a high-throughput materials discovery company inventing breakthrough battery materials for energy storage, mobility, and defense markets. The company accelerates material discovery by combining AI and high-throughput experimentation into a discovery engine, now bringing its first breakthrough to market: a family of high-performance DRX cathodes designed to replace today’s leading battery chemistries.​ Formed through Holyvolt AB’s acquisition of high-throughput pioneer Wildcat Discovery Technologies, Holyvolt  builds on Wildcat’s 18 years of proprietary materials data and expertise serving Fortune 500 customers – helping them stay competitive through material optimization, roadmap development, and reduced exposure to vulnerable supply chains.​ Holyvolt  is headquartered in Stockholm, with operations in San Diego and Munich.​

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