Gaussion raises £21m to unlock faster charging

As the global race to improve battery performance intensifies, a young British company believes the answer lies not in reinventing the battery itself, but in changing the way it is controlled.

Gaussion, a London-based deep-tech company spun out of University College London and the Faraday Institution, has secured £21 million in a Series A funding round co-led by BGF and AlbionVC. Existing investors Autotech Ventures, UCL Technology Fund and DN Capital were joined by Future Ventures, the investment firm led by Steve Jurvetson, one of Tesla’s earliest backers.

The fundraising brings Gaussion’s total capital raised to more than £33 million since its creation in 2022 and will support the commercial deployment of its technology across the automotive, aerospace, data centre and consumer electronics industries.

Rather than pursuing ever more complex battery chemistries, Gaussion has developed a system that works with existing lithium-ion cells. Its solution combines a magnetic printed circuit board, known as MagLiB, with proprietary electronics and artificial intelligence software to generate an external magnetic field that optimises battery behaviour during charging and operation.

According to the company, this additional control layer enables batteries to recharge significantly faster while preserving their lifespan, without requiring manufacturers to redesign their battery packs or adopt new cell chemistries.

“The modern economy depends on batteries, yet every battery still faces the same fundamental limits on performance and lifespan,” says Sebastian Hunte, investor at AlbionVC. “Gaussion has created a new magnetic intelligence layer capable of improving performance across virtually any chemistry or battery format.”

The proposition comes at a time when electrification and artificial intelligence are placing unprecedented demands on energy storage. From electric vehicles and drones to hyperscale data centres, industries are seeking ways to extract greater performance from technologies already deployed at scale.

Gaussion says its platform is currently being evaluated through 14 commercial programmes with major international manufacturers spanning automotive, aerospace, energy storage and consumer electronics. The company, which recently moved into a 40,000-square-foot research facility in London, also holds 66 patent applications across 17 patent families.

For chief executive Tom Heenan, the company’s ambition is to add “a new intelligence layer” to battery systems rather than replace them. “Our technology allows manufacturers to unlock greater performance from today’s lithium-ion batteries without changing the underlying chemistry,” he says. “That opens the door to charging electric vehicles in minutes, improving battery longevity and lowering operating costs across a wide range of industries.”

Commentators have been noting that there is a growing confidence in Britain’s deep-tech ecosystem, where university research is increasingly giving rise to companies seeking to compete in strategic technologies alongside American and Asian rivals.

“Gaussion has made remarkable progress in validating its technology and translating research into commercial traction,” says Dennis Atkinson, Co-Head of Early Stage at BGF. “Its solution addresses one of the most important challenges facing battery systems today: improving performance while reducing lifetime costs.”