GM Leads $60M Investment in AI and Battery Materials Innovator Mitra Chem

General Motors Co. in Detroit is leading a $60 million Series B financing round in Mitra Chem, a Silicon Valley-based battery materials developer to take advantage of the company’s AI-powered platform and advanced research and development facility in Mountain View, Calif.
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woman in battery facility
GM is investing $60 million in Mitra Chem’s research and development lab in Mountain View, Calif., as part of the company’s efforts to quickly develop and deploy new types of batteries for its Ultium platform. // Photo courtesy of GM

General Motors Co. in Detroit is leading a $60 million Series B financing round in Mitra Chem, a Silicon Valley-based battery materials developer to take advantage of the company’s AI-powered platform and advanced research and development facility in Mountain View, Calif.

The goal is to accelerate GM’s commercialization of affordable electric vehicle batteries.

GM and Mitra Chem will work on developing advanced iron-based cathode active materials (CAM) like lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP), to power affordable and accessible EV batteries compatible with GM’s Ultium Platform EV propulsion architecture.

The automaker’s funding will help Mitra Chem scale its current operations and expedite their novel battery materials formulation to market.

“This is a strategic investment that will further help reinforce GM’s efforts in EV batteries, accelerate our work on affordable battery chemistries like LMFP, and support our efforts to build a U.S.-focused battery supply chain,” says Gil Golan, vice president, technology acceleration and commercialization for GM.

“GM is accelerating larger investments in critical subdomains of battery technology, like cell chemistry, components, and advanced cell production processes. Mitra Chem’s labs, methods, and talent will fit well with our own research and development team’s work.”

Mitra Chem’s battery research and development facility can simulate, synthesize, and test thousands of cathode designs monthly, ranging in size from grams to kilograms. These processes drive significantly shortened learning cycles, enabling shorter time to market for new battery cell formulas.

The in-house cloud platform was purpose-built for battery cathode development, automates data ingestion across diverse synthesis, material characterization, cell prototyping, and standardized analyses and visualizations.

“GM’s investment in Mitra Chem will not only help us develop affordable battery chemistries for use in GM vehicles, but also will fuel our mission to develop, deploy, and commercialize U.S. made, iron-based cathode materials that can power EVs, grid-scale electrified energy storage, and beyond,” says Vivas Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Mitra Chem.

Mitra Chem’s lithium-ion battery materials product site should shorten the lab-to-production timeline by more than 90 percent. Lithium-ion batteries are the key platform technology enabling electrification in transportation, consumer electronics, along with residential, commercial, and grid-scale energy storage.