Prieto Battery, a Colorado State University spinoff company, has announced a business collaboration with Intel’s New Business Group, and an initial investment from Intel Capital.
The announcement came during the Intel Global Summit in San Diego, Nov. 3.
Prieto Battery was co-founded in 2009 by Associate Professor of Chemistry Amy Prieto to commercialize her lab’s 3-D lithium-ion battery technology.
The collaboration with Intel is aimed at accelerating the introduction of Prieto’s full, 3-D solid-state battery cell into the marketplace.
Prieto has agreed to complete a series of milestones to demonstrate the company’s battery performance and readiness, with a focus on improving the performance of the battery against size, energy density and complexity vectors. Intel will stage their investment to each milestone; in exchange, Prieto will grant Intel the ability to implement the technology first in computing devices.
“This commitment from Intel, one of the global leaders in computing devices, is important for us at this stage of our company,” said Prieto, who is CEO, CSO and co-founder of Prieto Battery. “We’ve been deliberate about trying to build relationships with companies like Intel that can help shape our commercialization roadmap and deliver strategic value for all stakeholders – most importantly, the end user of the technology.”
Today’s growing need for energy storage is driving the requirement for a radical change in battery design and production. Since its incorporation in 2009, Prieto has made significant strides in achieving its goal of producing a disruptive, transformational battery technology through its patented 3-D battery architecture.
Prieto has also patented an electroplating manufacturing process for its battery that uses non-toxic materials and will be price competitive.
Having demonstrated the fabrication of key battery materials and components in 2014, Prieto is now working to optimize battery prototypes and ready them for commercialization.
“Prieto’s thoughtful and creative approach to battery innovation is attractive to Intel as we focus on designing and building essential technologies that serve to advance the world’s computing devices. This is particularly true for wearable devices, where a conformal battery with high energy density is highly attractive,” said Jerry Bautista, vice president in the New Technology Group and general manager of the New Business Group at Intel. “Our goal is to help incubate and accelerate Prieto’s technology into early product implementation that will provide significant market advantage to several of our business units.”
Prieto plans to commercialize two products that focus on a series of applications requiring a combination of high power and energy storage.
More specifically, Prieto is initially focused on introducing a novel 3-D anode in late 2016 to replace a segment of the market served by conventional graphitic anodes. Prieto will incorporate that anode, which features higher energy density and safety, into its patented 3D Lithiumion, solid-state battery cell. Prieto will rely on work with companies like Intel to guide and accelerate marketplace introductions.
