StoreDot

The CEO of StoreDot acknowledged in 2015 that its scientific claims have not been peer-reviewed.[2] A peer-reviewed publication concluded that StoreDot's claimed capabilities have no basis in published, peer-reviewed literature, and predicted such batteries will not be commercialized in the coming years, saying StoreDot "claimed the commercial development of a battery to be charged within 30 s in 2014, 1 min in 2015, and 5 min in 2017."[3] John Timmer could not identify any published research about StoreDot's battery technology, and notes that StoreDot's technologies "leave the realm of academic research". The sample batteries provided by StoreDot were made with germanium; Timmer suggests germanium is being used for the prototypes and samples despite being "really expensive" because it's far easier to implement than silicon.[4]

StoreDot was founded in 2012 by Dr Doron Myersdorf, Professor Simon Litsyn, and Professor Gil Rosenman, initially developing displays and storage devices based on research by Professor Ehud Gazit. Two years later, StoreDot claimed to have developed smartphone batteries capable of being fully charged within 30 seconds.[1][5] The company raised over 6 million dollars in an initial investment round, and by the end of 2014, the company raised another 42 million dollars.[6]

StoreDot claimed its 2014 organic-compound batteries had a lifetime of 5000 charging cycles, and its future electric vehicle batteries will be made of a fast-charging organic component and a traditional lithium-ion battery; the fast-charging component was to be fully charged in five minutes, which would have then partially charged the lithium-ion battery at a conventional rate; fully-charging the lithium-ion battery required multiple charging cycles of the fast-charging component.[7]

Myersdorf announced the company's 30-second charging organic-compound-based battery will be commercially available by 2016. StoreDot switched to germanium-based batteries by 2017, citing graphite-free batteries and an electric vehicle battery that fully charges in five minutes. StoreDot raised another 62 million dollars by the end of 2017, expecting "millions of cars" to be equipped with its electric vehicle battery by 2020.[8][1]

StoreDot announced in 2018 that its mobile phone battery will be commercially available by 2019, and had plans to build a battery factory in the United States by 2022.[1] In 2019, StoreDot announced the commercialization of a 168-cell germanium-tin battery for electric scooters, and stated that its mobile phone products will be commercially available in late 2020 and the scooter battery will be commercially available in 2021. Myersdorf said the company's electric car battery will have ten times as many cells as the scooter battery, charge fast enough to add 300 miles of range in under five minutes, and have a cooling system. Myersdorf said the company's batteries don't degrade.[9][10] Myersdorf said in March 2022 that StoreDot will deliver by 2024 a battery capable of adding 100 miles of range in 5 minutes of charging.[1]

StoreDot started developing silicon-based batteries in 2019 and ceased development of its germanium-based batteries in 2020. Myersdorf claimed the germanium batteries were only developed as proof-of-concept, and were only meant to be sold in small quantities. Myersdorf claims the batteries were never released because they weren't sufficiently differentiated from the rest of the market.[1]

StoreDot was in negotiations in March 2021 for a SPAC merger at a $3.5 billion valuation.[11] A further funding round of 70 million dollars in 2022 gave the company a $1.5 billion valuation.[12]