Holyvolt's reported $245 million valuation is 3.4 times the value reported for its Wildcat lab deal
Stockholm startup Holyvolt raised $45 million in equity from Fifth Wall, Zone II and CC.VC to hunt for battery chemistries China doesn't control. Chief operating officer Steven Prast puts lithium-ion at best 20% through its maturity curve, an estimate the thesis depends on.
The Investor · Invest desk
Three figures: Holyvolt raised $45 million, all in equity; the round values it at $245 million, per a person familiar with the company, unconfirmed; if that valuation is post-money, the $45 million of new equity is about 18% of the company.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| New money raised in the round, all equity | $45 million | 1 | |
| Valuation set by the round, per a person familiar | $245 million | unconfirmed | 16 |
| New equity's share of the company, about | 18% | if the valuation is post-money; unconfirmed | 18 |
What happened
- China makes about 85% of the world's cathode active material and about 80% of its battery cells, according to Fortune's account.
- Holyvolt's lab is Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a San Diego company founded by Scripps chemist Peter Schultz, with a system that tests thousands of battery materials in parallel.
- Over 18 years, Wildcat says, it has run more than 225 projects for more than 85 customers, BMW among them, and tested more than 500,000 cells.
- CEO Mathias Ingvarsson told Fortune the merged company has trained AI models on Wildcat's results and fed them back into the lab, so each round of tests sharpens the next prediction.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision Holyvolt is aiming the round at the search for new chemistries and not at LFP or NMC capacity, so the return depends on a discovery that has not yet happened.
- What it limits constraint A material found in the lab still has to be manufactured in the West, and that capital need is separate from the $45 million, which is described as funding the hunt.
- Who's exposed exposure Investors carry the risk of the minority view: if computation alone can solve chemistry, as Prast says most of the field believes, the lab and its test archive lose much of their edge.
The reported $245 million valuation [16] is about 3.4 times the $73 million that The Next Web reported for the Wildcat merger, a figure Holyvolt confirmed as accurate [17][8]. Whether the $245 million is counted before or after the new money, the source does not say. If it is after, the $45 million of equity [1] buys about 18% of the company [18]. Either way, the premium over the deal value is being paid chiefly for the AI models CEO Mathias Ingvarsson says were trained on the lab's results [11]. Ingvarsson told Fortune that the typical AI-for-science startup builds its models first and goes looking for data afterward, and that Holyvolt came at it from the other direction [14].
Prast's case has two parts. The first is that the finished part of the curve belongs to China. "We will not be able to out-China China on the battlefield that China has defined," he said [4], and on LFP in particular: "If we take LFP and we try to out-LFP China, we will lose" [5]. The second part is that the unfinished part is large. He puts lithium-ion at best 20% of the way through its maturity curve, maybe 10% by conservative estimates [15], and thinks there must be "another dozen cathode materials that humanity just hasn't figured out yet" [7]. The round pays for a search that rests on that belief.
We think the decision to stay off LFP is sound, because a Western entrant would be chasing a lead China built by scaling NMC and LFP [3]. The weaker link is downstream. A cathode found in San Diego still has to be made, and making it is a separate capital need from the round, described as money for the hunt [1]. Prast's own prescription is to "invent better materials and processes and make them in the West" [6].
The outcomes diverge from there. A material could survive customer testing and get built in the West. It could work, and Chinese producers who already make most cathode active material [2] could scale it faster. Or the search could yield nothing inside the runway, and the lab's existing customer work would be the fallback.
Holyvolt also sits on one side of a split. Most of the field, Prast said, believes it can solve chemistry computationally, while a smaller camp believes AI needs a physical lab to check its work [12]. "We have to go to the lab and we have to go test," Prast said [13]. Holyvolt pays for that position only if computation alone proves enough. We would call the thesis wrong if the lab-and-model loop produces no candidate cathode that clears customer testing, or if computation-first rivals reach one without a lab.
What to watch
- Whether Holyvolt names a candidate cathode material and puts it into customer testing.
- Whether any Western manufacturer or financier commits money to make a Holyvolt material at scale, since the round is described as funding the search.
- Whether computation-only AI-for-science groups produce a usable battery material without a physical lab, which would weaken Holyvolt's minority position.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives70
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Stockholm-based Holyvolt raised $45 million, all in equity, from Fifth Wall, Zone II, CC.VC and several angel investors from the defense and finance industries, to hunt for battery chemistries China doesn't control.
- [2]
China makes about 85% of the world's cathode active material and about 80% of the world's battery cells.
- [3]
China's lead comes from scaling the two chemistries that dominate today, NMC and lithium iron phosphate (LFP).
- [4]
"We will not be able to out-China China on the battlefield that China has defined," Prast said.
- [5]
"If we take LFP and we try to out-LFP China, we will lose," Prast said.
- [6]
Prast said in a statement that the answer is to "invent better materials and processes and make them in the West."
- [7]
Prast told Fortune he thinks there must be "another dozen cathode materials that humanity just hasn't figured out yet."
- [8]
The Next Web reported Holyvolt's deal with Wildcat Discovery Technologies at $73 million in March, a figure the firm confirmed as accurate.
- [9]
Holyvolt's lab is Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a San Diego company founded by Scripps chemist Peter Schultz, which built a high-throughput system that tests thousands of battery materials in parallel.
- [10]
Over 18 years, Wildcat says, its platform has run more than 225 projects for more than 85 customers, including BMW, and tested more than 500,000 cells.
- [11]
Mathias Ingvarsson, Holyvolt's founder and CEO, told Fortune that as one merged company Holyvolt has trained AI models on Wildcat's results and wired them back into the lab, so each round of real-world tests sharpens the next prediction.
- [12]
Most of the AI-driven science field, Prast said, believes it can solve chemistry computationally; a smaller camp believes AI still needs a physical lab to check its work, and Holyvolt is in the second camp.
- [13]
"We have to go to the lab and we have to go test," Prast said.
- [14]
Most AI-for-science startups start with models and then look for data; Ingvarsson told Fortune that Holyvolt came at it from the other direction.
- [15]
By Steven Prast's reckoning, lithium-ion technology is at best 20% of the way through its maturity curve, maybe 10% by conservative estimates.
- [16]
The round values Holyvolt at $245 million, according to a person familiar with the company.
- [17]
The reported $245 million valuation is about 3.4 times the $73 million reported for the Wildcat deal.
- [18]
If the $245 million valuation is post-money, the $45 million of new equity is about 18% of the company.
Get this ledger inside ChatGPT. Ask about any of our stories and the answer brings its figure, each claim’s verdict and the sources. Free, no account.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
Topics and entities
Follow any of these and your For You feed starts watching them — no settings page required.