Grafoid announced that it acquired Braille Battery, a developer and manufacturer of advanced lightweight Li-Ion batteries for the automotive market. Grafoid is looking for Braille to incorporate the company's graphene MesoGraf materials in their batteries to enhance the performance of those batteries.
Grafoid actually acquired 75% of the shares in Braille (the rest is owned by the company's founder), which will remain as president and COO. Braille is focused on the Formula 1, NASCAR and IndyCar markets, but they aim to also enter the medical, military and marine sectors.
Grafoid did not disclose the financial details. Only two months ago Grafoid acquired ALCERECO (an advanced material producer) for $1.15 million. In the past year Grafoid raised around $3.5 million (perhaps more).
Grafoid explains that they acquired Braille Battery to provide themselves with an extremely advanced development and testing platform from which to meet the next generation battery requirements of its partners in the automotive market (and other markets as well).
The company further says taht their MesoGraf graphene process enables them to have the most versatile and highest performing graphene in the world. This enables them to move dierctly to graphene application commercialization. I guess it makes sense for them to become more than a "material provider" - as the graphene market at the material level itself is not expected to become very large. In addition to the battery electrode market, Grafoid is active in several markets (for example the pharmaceutical market and the 3D printing market ).
The Li-Ion electrode market seems ready to become a real driver for graphene materials in the near future. Companies active in this market include XG SCiences, SiNode (with Merck's AZEM), gAngstron Materials, Perpetuus, CalBattery, Graphene Batteries and others.
