French battery manufacturer Verkor has raised €100m to develop high-performance sustainable battery cells in France.

Co-led by EQT Ventures and Renault Group, the funding will support the company’s expansion and construction of the Verkor Innovation Centre (VIC) where the advanced battery cells and modules will be designed to support Europe’s net-zero goals.

Verkor will deliver battery cell manufacturing capacity of 16 GWh in 2024, scaling to +50 GWh by 2030. The VIC, which will be located in Grenoble and operational in 2022, will accommodate a pilot line for battery cell manufacturing, a R&D centre, testing facilities, module prototyping, and provide training for a new generation of engineers and technicians.

At a signing ceremony in Paris today, Verkor’s CEO Benoit Lemaignan said: “We are honoured to have shareholders of such a high quality on board with us. I want to thank our team for what we have achieved together in less than a year of existence. Our new shareholding structure totally reflects our ambition: an end-to-end approach to battery manufacturing, each of us focusing on what we do best, while cross-fertilising our expertise.”