Arkema has become a shareholder of Tiamat, a start-up specializing in sodium-ion battery technology. This investment will help accelerate the development of lithium-free battery solutions. Tiamat aims to build a Giga-factory in France with the support of strategic investors and government funding, creating potential job opportunities. Arkema's chief technology officer sees this as a strategic move in line with the company's focus on innovative materials for sustainability.
Arkema becomes a shareholder of the start-up Tiamat, spun off from the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in 2017 and a pioneer in sodium-ion battery technology. This investment will enable the Group to accelerate the development of technical solutions adapted to these batteries, which do not use lithium. The Group is once again demonstrating its willingness to be a key player in battery materials, offering a unique range of products adapted to all energy storage technologies.
Since 2017, the start-up Tiamat has been designing, developing, industrializing and marketing sodium-ion batteries, a new lithium-free technology enabling in particular to avoid the constraints associated with the supply of this metal.
Alongside strategic investors such as Stellantis Ventures and MBDA, Arkema contributed to Tiamat's recent €22 million fund-raising. Thanks to these funds and with the support of the French government and the European Union, Tiamat is aiming to build a 5 GWh Giga-factory in France, entirely dedicated to the production of sodium-ion battery cells. An initial tranche of 0.7 GWh could be operational by the end of 2025, and a thousand jobs could eventually be created.
"Our portfolio of advanced materials enables us to provide solutions for all our customers' battery technologies. The sodium-ion technology developed by Tiamat is very interesting, as it will enable to do away with the dependence to lithium and several strategic metals.
This operation enriches our ecosystem, and is perfectly in line with Arkema's strategy: innovative materials for a sustainable world" Armand Ajdari, Arkema's chief technology officer.