Grant will help emerging battery manufacturing intelligence company scale manufacturing of its battery manufacturing solutions for gigafactories
Emeryville, Calif. (April 17, 2023) – The California Energy Commission (CEC) recently approved a $2.75M grant for Liminal, a leading battery manufacturing intelligence company, to advance the assembly of its EchoStat(R) platform from manual to fully-automated factory-ready equipment. EchoStat is an EV battery cell inspection system that uses ultrasound inspection and machine learning analytics to provide manufacturers with previously unavailable insights into battery quality, reliability and performance.
“To power the global EV transition, battery production needs to expand by 20 percent annually, but challenges with battery reliability have created setbacks for automakers and battery companies,” said Andrew Hsieh, CEO of Liminal. “We specifically designed EchoStat to help manufacturers meet the growing production demand by providing data-backed insights to make their systems more intelligent and ensure the highest quality standards.
The Realizing Accelerated Manufacturing and Production for Clean Energy Technologies (RAMP) award is part of the CEC’s Electric Program Investment Charge Program (EPIC) designed to support clean energy entrepreneurs in successfully advancing their emerging best-of-class innovative technology to the Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) stage.
“RAMP is really a visionary program. It is providing value, not just for our clean energy goals, but also ultimately for ratepayers because it is helping to drive down the cost of these technologies,” said California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild, who also praised innovators for keeping this work in California.
“There is a huge opportunity to expand California’s market presence and impact in battery cell manufacturing, and we’re pleased to award Liminal this RAMP grant in order to accelerate their in-state manufacturing capability,” said Erik Stokes, Energy Research and Development Division deputy director at the California Energy Commission. “We are confident that Liminal’s technology will help battery cell manufacturers around the world decrease time to market for new battery cells, accelerate the timeline for new battery cell production while positively impacting manufacturing cost and reliability.
The award from the state comes on the heels of a Series A2 funding round Liminal secured for $17.5M in February 2023. The company has successfully completed multiple customer evaluations at a process development scale and is preparing to deploy its first factory inspection system with a major battery cell manufacturer.
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About the California Energy Commission
The California Energy Commission is leading the state to a 100 percent clean energy future. It has seven core responsibilities: developing renewable energy, transforming transportation, increasing energy efficiency, investing in energy innovation, advancing state energy policy, certifying thermal power plants and preparing for energy emergencies.
About Liminal
Liminal is a battery manufacturing intelligence provider that combines ultrasound technology with machine learning to deliver advanced insights that empower manufacturers. By improving the performance and safety of batteries and decreasing their lifetime costs, Liminal’s solutions address the climate crisis and for increased scalability for battery manufacturers to create a world where EVs are accessible to all drivers. Liminal was founded in 2015 by top technologists from Princeton University, who were part of the Cyclotron Road entrepreneurial fellowship program (now part of Activate). Visit liminalinsights.com for more information.
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