Australian battery company Sicona Battery Technologies has completed its first acquisition, securing 100 per cent ownership of American battery technology developer Advano.
The deal establishes an immediate, permanent operational footprint in the US for the Australian company.
Sicona acquires a pilot manufacturing plant, advanced research and development laboratories, and specialised cell-testing facilities situated directly opposite NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, as well as operations at the Center for Energy Resource Management.
The deal also consolidates Advano’s existing silicon anode intellectual property, expanding Sicona’s global portfolio to 151 patents across 46 patent families. This positions the Australian firm as a leading intellectual property holder in mechanical silicon anode technology.
Christiaan Jordaan, CEO of Sicona Battery Technologies, said: “This acquisition is a major strategic step in Sicona’s transition from an Australian battery-materials company into a global lithium-silicon battery platform with a permanent operating base in the United States.
Advano, established in 2016, had previously raised approximately US$46 million (AU$68 million) to engineer silicon-based anode materials aimed at elevating energy density and reducing production costs for lithium-ion batteries.
Sicona plans to integrate its proprietary SiCx silicon-carbon anode manufacturing process into the Louisiana site, scaling the facility into a “Super Pilot” plant.
Once expanded, the operation will produce sufficient material to supply more than three million battery cells annually.
Target end-markets include artificial intelligence data centre backup systems, robotics, defence technologies, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, drones, and power tools.
The project has been selected for US congressional appropriations funding, subject to completion of the applicable government processes.
World-renowned battery expert Professor Y. Shirley Meng has been appointed as Scientific Advisor to Sicona. Meng holds distinguished academic posts at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Chicago.