(Reuters) - Slovak battery maker InoBat has raised 100 million euros ($104 million) in its latest funding round backed by its Chinese partner, battery cell maker Gotion High Tech, it said on Friday.
The funding round, the largest ever for a technology company in Slovakia, also included contributions from the country's sovereign wealth fund, Lilium, Bromo Capital, IPM Group and Cielo Capital, and complemented an investment from strategic investors Amara Raja and Rio Tinto, it said.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
The news comes less than a month after Northvolt, the Swedish maker of battery cells for electric vehicles, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., raising concerns about the future of Europe's EV battery industry. The Swedish player said earlier this month that it was seeking to sell its electric industrial battery business by the year-end.
CONTEXT
Slovakia's Economy Minister Denisa Sakova had said in June that Gotion and InoBat would invest 1.2 billion euros to build an EV battery plant in Slovakia, in what would be the second biggest investment in the country's history.
Automobile production is major sector in Slovakia's economy.
Countries have lined up to win investment in the sector amid European efforts to boost its EV battery industry and reduce reliance on dominant Asian battery makers, despite slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.
KEY QUOTES
"Western Europe has been slow to react to the critical need for battery technology. Inobat has quietly gone about building both its own high performance cell technology and its pragmatic partnership with Gotion to produce cost effective cells," the chairman of InoBat's board, Andy Palmer, said.
WHAT'S NEXT
Over the next year, InoBat aims to ramp up production of European-designed battery cells, start an energy storage business in partnership with Gotion and launch another investment round to support scaling of its operations in Slovakia, Serbia and Spain and accelerating growth in new regions, it said.
($1 = 0.9639 euros)
(Reporting by Nick Carey, writing by Linda Pasquini; editing by Milla Nissi)