CINNO Research Industry News, as a start-up company, CelLink can now use its flexible substrate materials for electric vehicle battery packs. Thanks to this flexible substrate material, the weight of wiring materials used in the body is reduced by 70%, and the space occupied is reduced by 90%.
Germany's Robert Bosch (Robert Bosch) venture capital company recently invested in a US startup company-CelLink, the company mainly develops some flexible substrate technology that can handle high-power electrical signals.
Bosch Ventures participated in a $ 22.5 million Series B financing from CelLink, San Carlos, California. The company is based on a proprietary technology that combines manufacturing processes, design, and materials to produce low-cost electricity Electronic flexible substrates and materials. In addition to Bosch Venture Capital, others including BMW i-Ventures and Ford also participated in the financing.
“From the initial seed round of financing, CelLink ’s progress in its product portfolio has always excited us,” said Dr. Ingo Ramesohl, Managing Director of Bosch Ventures, “The team developed batteries for electric vehicles and electric bicycles. Group application, which is of great significance to Bosch, because our vision has always been to become a leader in the mass market of electric vehicles. "
The funds will be mainly used to improve CelLink's production capacity to meet the needs of major customers in the entire market. CelLink ’s three main markets include vehicle wiring, battery pack interconnection, and LED lighting.
In terms of circuit wiring, CelLink greatly simplifies wiring through special design and material fusion, while also obtaining very good electrical and thermal performance. Compared with existing wiring technology, CelLink's design scheme can significantly reduce the volume and weight of wiring materials. As far as vehicle wiring is concerned, CelLink's technology replaces round wiring harnesses with flat flexible circuits, thereby reducing the weight by 70% and reducing the volume by 90%. Based on these advantages, CelLink's solution is very helpful to promote the widespread adoption of next-generation electrical systems.
At present, printed circuits and flexible circuits constitute a $ 60 billion market for consumer electronics products, but manufacturers have not yet been able to solve the problem of the power electronics market because the existing manufacturing processes cannot scale up to produce larger areas and high Conductive circuit material. CelLink has the ability to manufacture larger and higher conductivity circuits. In fact, they have always aimed at this rapidly growing market, including automotive wiring, LED lighting, battery packs and solar cell wiring.
The new round of funding obtained from this financing will mainly be used to expand production capacity to meet the existing contract requirements in these major market areas, and further promote several other projects from product development to large-scale production. In the long run, CelLink believes that their technical solutions can be further extended to applications such as aerospace and commercial vehicles.
CelLink was founded by serial entrepreneur Kevin Coakley, who founded ThinSilicon, which was later acquired by Chinese solar power company. This round of financing not only helped the company absorb new capital, but also strengthened its contacts with previous investors such as RBVC, and also expanded CelLink's investment community. "As one of CelLink's earliest investors, RBVC has been our company's most important supporter in our key technology areas (such as high-volume manufacturing and high-speed data transmission)," Coakley said. "In addition, RBVC has also bridged us To introduce us to many other major automotive customers and partners in Europe. "