Aionics partners with Cellforce, featured in TechCrunch and MIT Technology Review

We are excited to unveil that Aionics has entered into a joint development partnership with CELLFORCE GROUP to design the next generation of batteries for electric vehicles on beyond.

The announcement was initially made on October 5th, 2023 by CEO Austin Sendek on the stage of the UP.Partners UP Summit 2023 and, at the same time across the country, by Chief Scientist Venkat Viswanathan on the stage of MIT Technology Review‘s ClimateTech. The team also unveiled Aionics’s new developments in generative AI, including generative molecule design for electrolytes, and training large language models on textbooks and scientific papers to assist researchers in the lab.

According to Dr. Carsten G. Staacke of Cellforce Group: “Cellforce and Aionics are harnessing the power of A.I. to accelerate battery development and build the best performing product on the market.”

The announcement was covered by both TechCrunch and MIT Technology Review.

Ten billion. That’s how many commercially procurable molecules are available today. Start looking at them in groups of five — the typical combination used to make electrolyte materials in batteries — and it increases to 10 to the 47th power.

For those counting, that’s a lot.

All of those combinations matter in the world of batteries. Find the right mixture of electrolyte materials and you can end up with a faster charging, more energy dense battery for an EV, the grid or even an electric airplane. The downside? Similar to the drug discovery process, it can take more than a decade and thousands of failures to find the right fit.

That’s where founders of startup Aionics say their AI tools can speed things up.

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How AI could supercharge battery research

During one of the final sessions at our ClimateTech event last week, I got to hear about how AI could help develop battery materials for future electric sports cars.  

This came during a discussion with Venkat Viswanathan about the potential for electric aviation—an exciting prospect as well as a huge challenge, given the steep demands on batteries during flight. Today’s batteries simply can’t cut it in the skies. 

In our discussion, Viswanathan said one of the reasons he saw hope for electric aviation is the potential of AI to speed up battery research. In fact, he cofounded a startup called Aionics in 2020 to bring AI into battery development. 

On stage at ClimateTech, Viswanathan announced a new research partnership that he says could make AI a key force in developing future EV batteries. The deal is between Aionics and Cellforce, a German battery maker that’s a subsidiary of Porsche. Aionics will help Cellforce design new electrolyte materials, in the hopes of making better batteries.

Read the full article here