Aionics Unveils Expansion into Aviation Batteries Fueled by Strategic Investments and Industry Partnerships
Aionics, the company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum mechanical simulation to design next generation materials, unveiled its expansion into developing safer and more performant batteries for electric aviation. This next chapter will be fueled by recent investments from an oversubscribed round led by Phillip Sarofim’s Trousdale Ventures and UP.Partners along with additional support from MINTS (University of Michigan) and Avila VC.
The path to global decarbonization requires fundamental innovations in materials for batteries. While there has been significant progress in creating more low-cost and widely available clean energy and batteries for electric vehicles, electrifying the aviation industry remains a major challenge. With its expansion into aviation, Aionics plans to deploy its AI-powered battery design platform to address this challenge.
Aionics was founded in 2020 by a team of battery scientists: Drs. Austin Sendek and Lenson Pellouchoud from Stanford University, and Prof. Venkat Viswanathan of the University of Michigan, with a mission to leverage revolutions in quantum mechanical simulation and machine learning to push the boundaries of electrochemical materials development. Today, Aionics uses its best-in-class computational capabilities, in partnership with manufacturers, to design and bring to market next-generation materials for leading OEMs in automotive, aerospace, grid-scale energy storage, green manufacturing, and more.
Inspired by the success of AI-driven drug discovery, Aionics created the world’s first AI-powered battery design platform capable of screening all known materials and formulations for any performance target. Due to the groundbreaking nature of the technology platform, Aionics was recently featured on Fast Company's 2024 list of World-Changing Ideas and CB Insights' AI 100, along with other notable AI companies including OpenAI and Databricks.
“There is a growing urgency for smarter battery solutions and the trial-and error approach of years past is not sustainable,” said Aionics Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Dr. Austin Sendek. “Our platform enables us to supercharge the process of finding better battery chemistries and remove the historic technical bottlenecks typical of battery design. This deeper progression into the aviation space is a natural expansion for the company based on our momentum in the automotive space. We look forward to continuing to work with leaders in the transportation industry to accelerate the path to global electrification.”
“Our team has been working at the intersection of batteries and AI since 2020, with an even longer history of published academic work on applying materials informatics approaches to battery design,” added Viswanathan. “We’re uniquely equipped to apply materials design towards a number of decarbonization applications across the transportation sector, as evident through our bench of partners at the forefront of electrification.”
Aionics has established relationships with some of the leading OEMs in the space, including a joint development partnership with Cellforce Group, the battery subsidiary of Porsche AG. With this latest expansion into the aviation space, Aionics has also entered into a joint development partnership with a leading electric aviation developer and manufacturer. Additionally, Aionics has brought on the former CEO of eVTOL company Wisk, Gary Gysin, as an advisor.
Phillip Sarofim, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Trousdale Ventures added, “Chemical suppliers and battery OEMs are at the forefront of the energy transition, but they need the right processes to maximize their impact and bring greener solutions to scale. With its unique business model, Aionics is bringing new formulations to the market with partnerships that can support the climate transition and help make better batteries for future EVs, aircrafts and other applications.”
“We are excited to support Aionics on their journey to revolutionize the production of batteries using the latest in machine learning,” said Adam Grosser, Chairman and Managing Partner at UP.Partners. “At UP.Partners, we strive to support entrepreneurs creating distinctive platform technologies that are broadly applicable to industries; and Austin and Venkat are bringing novel computational solutions to an important and fundamental portion of the transportation and energy ecosystem.”
Aionics | aionics.io
Trousdale Ventures | www.trousdale.vc
UP.Partners | www.up.partners
