NanoGraf gets $8 million from U.S. Army to ramp up production for batteries

After opening a 17,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the West Loop last week, battery tech startup NanoGraf is going deeper in its relationship with one of its more loyal customers.

The Chicago tech startup this week received an $8 million contract from the U.S. Army intended to help the company scale production at its new facility.

At peak production, the facility aims to deliver enough of the company's proprietary silicon anode material, a key competent in batteries, including those that power electric vehicles, for 24 million battery cells — a number NanoGraf says would be more than enough to fulfill all of the U.S. military's power needs.

While NanoGraf's vision ultimately is to have every electric vehicle on the road powered by its next generation of lithium ion batteries, the batteries, which NanoGraf says are lighter and longer lasting than its competitors' products, serve an important function for soldiers in the field as well.

A soldier can carry up to 25 pounds of batteries on a single mission to run all of the electronics they use. With NanoGraf's batteries, that weight can drop 15%.

Halimah Najieb-Locke, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base resilience at the U.S. Department of Defense, says the work being done by NanoGraf will help save lives.

"The men and women in uniform depend upon batteries to make sure that the advanced weapon systems they use work in time of need," she said at the factory ribbon-cutting ceremony last week. "And what NanoGraf is going to do is truly revolutionize the way that our military is able to be mobile in times of need as well as how the everyday soldier, seaman, airmen [and] guardians are able to really execute the mission and defend the nation."

Najieb-Locke said the Army relies on lithium ion batteries every day, and the equipment it ships overseas for allies today works because of lithium ion batteries.

Connor Hund, chief operating officer at NanoGraf, said the company more than doubled its team in 2023 and would not be where it is today without the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army's support.

NanoGraf's new facility, the first large-volume silicon oxide manufacturing facility to be commissioned in North America, was made possible through a $10 million Department of Defense contract along with additional tax credits.