Log 9 Materials closes Series A funding with $10 million, Petronas Ventures puts $2 million

Bangalore-headquartered advanced battery-tech and deep-tech start-up Log 9 Materials has concluded its Series A+ capital raise round of $10 million (Rs 74 crore) with $2 million (Rs 14.8 crore) investment from Petronas Ventures – the venture capital arm of Petronas, a global energy and solutions company.

The Series A+ funding round of Log 9 has been led by India’s battery major Amara Raja Batteries; it also involved the participation of Exfinity Ventures and Sequoia Capital India's Surge Programme, alongside a clutch of strategic angel investors.

The company says the funds raised from Petronas Ventures as a part of the Series A+ round along with the funds previously raised in this round will be used by Log 9 to launch and scale its InstaCharge Network of electric vehicles --wherein Log 9 has integrated its fast-charging batteries named RapidX Batteries with various two- and three-wheeler OEMs in order to create RapidEV variants of their existing vehicles.

The start-up plans to deploy around 5,000 vehicles in the next 6 months within its InstaCharge Network. Further, the funds from the Series A+ round will be utilised to develop and scale the technology and manufacturing capabilities of Log 9 from materials to cell to battery pack level.

Akshay Singhal, founder and CEO, Log 9 Materials said, “We are happy to wind up our Series A+ round with the latest fundraise from Petronas Ventures – which enables us to accelerate our ongoing mission of introducing our breakthrough InstaCharge (rapid charging) battery technology to a plethora of end-users, and in positioning Log 9 as the largest Indian player in advanced cell chemistries. In the future, we at Log 9 have ambitious plans to work with the Petronas business units to accelerate renewable energy adoption with our advanced battery solutions for grid-level energy storage. The advancements and OEM level vehicular integrations of Log 9’s Aluminum Fuel Cells will also continue to happen in parallel.”

Arni Laily Anwarrudin, head, Petronas Ventures said, “Log9’s technology and solution are aligned with Petronas Ventures investment focus in the space of future of energy and we believe that this investment will complement Petronas growth in the new energy business. The passion and determination shown by Log 9 management team coupled with their vision, resonates with Petronas statement of purpose and sustainability agenda, in harnessing the good in energy to elevate and enrich lives for a sustainable future.”

Log 9 Materials has already completed over 10 pilots for its rapid charging battery packs with various last-mile fleet operators for a run of over 3,000km without any degradation, consistent load carrying capacity, persistent instant charging and high uptime of vehicles. Its batteries are capable of fully charging in 15 minutes for a two-wheeler and 40 minutes for a three-wheeler, making them ideal for commercial use cases. Furthermore, these batteries have a life of over 15,000 cycles, corresponding to over 15 years of usage, with already being certified less than 3% degradation in the life of a typical last-mile delivery vehicle. The commercial launch of Log 9’s Rapid Charging Batteries is scheduled for October 2021.