Alex Holmes, COO of Nano One Materials, a Canadian company developing cathode technology for lithium-ion batteries, announced a new collaboration and investment from Sumitomo Metal Mining. Sumitomo is investing nearly $17 million CAD for a 5% stake in Nano One. The companies have been collaborating over the past 9 months, with Sumitomo testing and validating Nano One's materials. Sumitomo sees potential in Nano One's differentiated process for producing cathode materials with a lower environmental footprint and competitive costs.

The collaboration will focus on tailoring materials to Sumitomo's customer specifications, especially in the Japanese auto ecosystem. The end goal is licensing agreements and joint ventures for both LFP and nickel-rich NMC cathode materials. Holmes explained Nano One's hybrid business model - large auto plants would likely license the technology to avoid capex, while smaller plants like for grid storage may do JVs where Nano One provides technology and Sumitomo provides capital.

Nano One recently acquired the only LFP cathode plant in North America and has retooled it for their process. They are now producing large samples to send to customers. Validation takes time, going through iterative samples from small to large scale. Holmes believes they are well positioned in North America where production is currently zero but will scale up significantly. Their team provides operating expertise that new entrants lack. The new funding will help complete plant conversions and trials to get large samples to customers.