When you think which of the world mega companies would invest $15m (£10.1m) into a tech start-up company which claims to have made a significant breakthrough in battery technology called Sakti3, one of the last or even not on the list would be Dyson. This is the British company marks the first investment made outside its own business but you can see why they have invested in one that could potentially double the battery life of today’s gadgets. With battery technology being one of the major limiting factors of portable and cordless electronic products today, money is part of a larger $20m investment round in Sakti3 that will see the start-up’s research commercialised and incorporated into Dyson products, according to the Telegraph.
Skati3’s batteries are said to be lighter, more affordable to mass produce, and safer than the more accidental combustion-prone liquid-based batteries. Skati3’s solid-state battery technology that can store twice as much energy as most conventional lithium-ion batteries used today, greatly improving the battery performance in everything from smartphones, tablets and smartwatches to electric cars and of course Dyson’s own cordless vacuum cleaners, so having Dyson’s standard manufacturing equipment will be an advantage in the sense of creating prototypes on, to show its potential for commercialisation in the near future.. Additional investors in Sakti3 include Khosla Ventures, General Motors and others.
James Dyson has said “Sakti3 has achieved leaps in performance, which current battery technology simply can’t. It’s these fundamental technologies – batteries, motors – that allow machines to work properly,” He went on to say “The Sakti3 team has amazing ambitions, and their platform offers the potential for exponential performance gains that will supercharge the Dyson machines we know today.” The founder and chief executive of Sakti3, Ann Marie Sastry said “It was an honour to be approached by Dyson because it wanted what we did – much, much better batteries, There is a great deal of knowledge and passion on both sides, and Dyson’s engineering team has the capability and the track record to scale up new ideas and make them a commercial”
