French battery startup Verkor raises more than €250m financing for its innovation centre

French battery startup Verkor announced it has raised more than €250 million, for the inauguration of its R&D lab, an integral part of the Verkor Innovation Centre.

Verkor received the support of the European Investment Bank, securing the financing of its innovation centre in Grenoble, which is coming to completion. This latest mechanism mobilises Verkor’s solid financial ecosystem of industrial partners in the battery sector, commercial banks, investment funds, and public banks.  

Located in Grenoble, the VIC is Verkor’s technological and innovation centre: a 15,000 m2 building comprising an R&D lab for designing high-performance batteries, an intelligent pilot line with a capacity of 150 MWh/year, and a training centre to meet the battery sector’s growing need for a specialised workforce. Construction is already well underway, with delivery set for the first half of 2023. 

Benoit Lemaignan, CEO, Verkor: “This announcement is a further concretisation of the efforts undertaken over the last two years to build the future of electric mobility in Europe. I welcome the support of our institutional and industrial partners to make our project a reality. I know we can continue to count on them for the next milestone of our development. I would also like to thank our team who, over and above their unwavering commitment every day, are betting on the future of our collective project.”  

The European Investment Bank is financing €49 million as part of the Energy Demonstration Projects (EDP) product of its initiative InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators – in cooperation with the European Commission, to develop pilot projects in the energy sector. Verkor affirms its status as a company committed to the development of a European electric vehicle battery ecosystem. 

Bpifrance Assurance Export will guarantee €51 million of bank financing. This financing, currently being finalised, got a provisional agreement from Santander Corporate & Investment Banking and Société Générale. This strategic project guarantee (GPS), granted by the French Government to “Large strategic projects” allows the state and the BPI to support the development of national champions. Verkor is the first project to benefit from this French state support to strategic projects.

A convertible bond issue with financial partners like Demeter FMET and the SPI investment fund (“Société de projets industriels”) operated by Bpifrance on behalf of the French Government in the framework of the “Invest for the Future” programme; industrial partners like Plastic Omnium, Sibayne-Stillwater, Groupe IDEC, Schneider Electric and Verkor employees that support Verkor’s project bringing together several million euros of personal investment. 

The total acquisition of the Siemens site in Grenoble and the co-investment with GROUPE IDEC for a total of more than €70 million  with the goal of finalising the Verkor Innovation Centre, moving the company’s headquarters and opening the “Ecole de la Batterie.”  

Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President, European Investment Bank: “The European Investment Bank is demonstrating its determination to build a better future using European technologies that address the urgency of the fight against climate change, as well as the objective to relocalise strategic value chains. After financing several other projects in the sector like the Northvolt Gigafactory in Sweden and those of Renault in Douai and Stellantis in Douvrain, the European Investment Bank is proud to join the ecosystem of public and private partners supporting Verkor as they reach their goals in France.”  

www.verkor.com