Advano, which builds battery components using scrap silicon for powerful and longer lasting batteries, raises $18.5M from investors, including Tony Fadell
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
Advano's raise lands in a battery-materials funding arc that has been building for years: 24M came out of stealth back in 2015 with $54.5M to slash lithium-ion production costs, and Sila Nanotechnologies has since proven the silicon-anode approach can ship commercially, powering the new Whoop wearable. What distinguishes Advano is its feedstock — building battery components from scrap silicon rather than newly manufactured material.
First-order effects
- Advano gains $18.5M and a marquee backer in Tony Fadell, whose iPod and iPhone background signals the company is being positioned for consumer-device batteries first rather than automotive scale.
- The round validates scrap silicon as a viable anode feedstock, giving Advano capital to move from component development toward manufacturing volume.
Second-order effects
- Advano now competes directly for design wins against Sila, which has already crossed from lab to a shipping product — forcing both to prove silicon components can scale beyond wearables into larger markets.
- Sourcing from semiconductor-industry scrap ties Advano's supply chain to electronics manufacturing waste streams, echoing the recycled-feedstock thesis that drew Google into Redwood's expanded $425M Series E at a reported $6B valuation.
Third-order effects
- If scrap-derived and recycled inputs keep attracting capital at both ends of the battery — cathode recycling at Redwood's scale, silicon components at Advano's — battery manufacturing structurally shifts toward secondary feedstock suppliers layered between chip fabs, recyclers, and cell makers.
- The pattern across 24M, Sila, StoreDot, and Advano suggests battery innovation is consolidating around materials-level specialists selling components into incumbent cell production, rather than vertically integrated cell startups.
The trend: Battery investment is migrating from whole-cell moonshots to materials-level startups, with silicon anodes and recycled feedstocks emerging as the two funded paths to denser, cheaper cells.