Enfucell Gets VC Funding for Paper Battery

Enfucell Ltd., a Venture Cup winner from year 2002, has received a €600,000 financing package for R&D and commercialization of thin flexible paper battery, SoftBattery™. Replicon Corporate Finance Ltd. acted as a financial advisor for the Finnish company in this preliminary financing round. Enfucell and Replicon will continue their advisory agreement.

Enfucell has developed a novel, thin, flexible battery for disposable and/or mobile electronic devices and applications which include, cosmetics, smart cards, micro sensors, greeting cards, LEDs on paper, bi-stable displays, and semi-active radio frequency identification, and similar applications that require very low power up to 1 mW.

Enfucell's paper battery converts chemical energy directly into electricity. In our case, metal is oxidized at one side of paper and manganese oxide or other oxides is reduced at another side of the paper when the battery is connected to applications. The paper-containing electrolyte is used as separator. The metal might be zinc, aluminum, nickel, and so on.

The SoftBattery is produced using a novel manufacturing technology based on traditional paper printing technology. Enfucell invented a composition of the battery and developed a printable layer structure for the battery.

The company's next target is to gain major financial package for global market penetration of Enfucell's products in 1-2 year time frame.