Pionics - Battery maker

Pionics Raises $15M

Japanese Battery Maker Pionics Gets $15M From Intel Capital, Others

By VentureWire Staff Reporters

Intel Capital said it and a group of investors have jointly invested a total of Y1.6 billion ($15 million) in additional funding in Japanese lithium polymer battery developer Pionics Co.

The move comes more than a year after the battery technology venture received $2.1 million, or about Y218.5 million, from Intel Capital and Jafco Co. in September 2003.

Tokyo-based venture capital firms Jafco Co. and NIF Ventures Co. are part of the latest group of investors.

The extra funding is further testament to the strong interest of Intel and the venture capital firms in funding technology that would enable extended battery
life for energy-hungry advanced notebook PCs and other portable digital devices such as mobile phones.

Intel Capital did not disclose the size of its investment in the latest round of funding. But it and Jafco were the lead investors, a Pionics official said.

Inspire Technology Resource Management Corp., part of a Tokyo-based management consulting and investment funds
management firm, also participated in this round of financing, Intel said in a statement.

Other investors in the group include Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., a unit of Mitsubishi TokyoFinancial Group Inc., Orix Capital Corp., a venture
capital unit of Orix Corp., Shiga Bank Ltd., and Nikko antfactory, part of the Nikko Cordial Corp.

Pionics, which was established in 1997 and is led by industry veteran Tsutomu Sada, said it plans to use the
proceeds from the investment for product development and manufacturing capacity to allow volume production
of small, lightweight, large-capacity lithium batteries used in mobile digital gadgets.

Pionics is an attractive target for Intel and other investors, as it has already achieved product energy density - the energy obtainable per unit weight or volume - 50% higher than current lithium polymer
batteries. Energy density is one of the key elements in gauging battery performance, along with size, weight and response time.

Intel Capital expects Pionics will be able to at least double the energy density of existing conventional batteries.


"With this investment, we can finally move from a testing stage to a mass-production phase," said Junichi Inoue, a spokesman for Pionics.

He said the company will build a plant that will begin the volume production of lithium polymer batteries sometime in 2005. This means the firm is on track to meet Intel's original expectation to bring high
energy-density lithium polymer batteries to the market
in two years from 2003.



Another advantage of Pionics is its ability to offer tailor-made batteries according to clients' hardware
requirements, as it has the technical ability to
evaluate and develop battery materials. Such an
approach would give device makers a higher degree of
flexibility in designing their mobile gadgets.



For example, using Pionics' technology, batteries can
be placed behind computer screens, giving designers
more freedom to build smaller and thinner notebook
computers.



Commercially available notebook PC batteries generally
need to be recharged after about four hours of use,
though some of the new models have recently exceeded
that performance. Technically, lithium polymer
batteries alone can be stretched to operate a notebook
computer for as long as six to seven hours.



But battery-life requirements for mobile gadgets are
increasing much faster than manufacturers can trim the
power needs of such devices.

http://www.japan-pionics.co.jp/