Groundbreaking for Northvolt Labs
Northvolt AB kicked off the construction of Northvolt Labs on 27 April 2018. Northvolt Labs, which will be located in Västerås, Sweden, will be a cutting edge scale-up line and research facility to be used for development, testing and industrialization of lithium-ion battery cells before large-scale production. Once completed in 2019, the facility is expected to employ 300-400 persons.
For the purposes of financing Northvolt Labs, Northvolt has now completed a first stage financing round amounting to approximately euro 100 million, which includes a combination of funds provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and InnovFin (EU Finance for Innovators Energy Demonstration Projects), the Swedish Energy Agency and Northvolt and its industrial strategic partners.
Northvolt was founded in 2016 with the mission to build the world’s greenest battery, with a minimal carbon footprint and the highest ambitions for recycling, to enable the European transition to renewable energy. Northvolt’s main production facility, which will be located in Skellefteå, Sweden, will, once completed, be Europe’s largest battery factory and produce 32 GWh worth of battery capacity annually.
Mannheimer Swartling has been legal adviser to Northvolt on the equity and debt financing of Northvolt Labs and the supply of production equipment, etc. Mannheimer Swartling’s team included lawyers from a number of practice groups, such as Banking and Finance, Corporate Commercial, Funds and Investments and Infrastructure and Construction.
