ClimAccelerator start-up Breathe Battery Technologies raises £1.5m in latest seed round

Breathe Battery Technologies may hold the answer to the world’s escalating demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries: better management.

The London-based start-up specialising in advanced battery management is helping EVs and smartphones charge faster and last longer with the world’s first truly dynamic and health-adaptive charging software.

Battery management systems (BMS) are responsible for advanced monitoring and management of rechargeable battery packs, playing a critical role in safety levels, performance, charge rates, and longevity.

Thanks to a £1.5m seed round led by SpeedInvest, the company intends to scale up its engineering team and accelerate the deployment of its intelligent battery management algorithms in electric vehicles and smartphones. 

“Our vision for Breathe is to catalyse the electrification of how we move around this planet,” said co-founder and CEO Dr Ian Campbell. “We’re beginning with automotive electrification, and on a longer timeframe we’ll move to the maritime and aerospace markets.”

The company believes that the intelligence of battery management systems lies in the software. Breathe’s Lincc technology improves battery capacity by five per cent and doubles the battery’s lifetime without the need for costly hardware changes.

Founders Dr Ian Campbell, Dr Yan Zhao and Prof Greg Offer participated in the Grantham Institute’s Climate-KIC Accelerator programme at Imperial College London before officially launching the company in May 2019.

“The EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator has supported us since day one, helping us develop, commercialise and scale novel battery management software as we jointly target delivering on the ambitions of the European Green Deal and a 1.5 world,” remarked Dr Campbell. 

Breathe Battery Technology joins an impressive portfolio of battery solutions supported by EIT Climate-KIC entrepreneurship programmes, including Brill Power and TWAICE. By increasing battery life and storage capacity, these start-ups are helping to mitigate climate change, pollution and the extraction of raw materials. 

This article was adapted from its original publication on 2 December 2021.