Skeleton Technologies, Estonia-based manufacturer of graphene-enhanced supercapacitors, and Marubeni Corporation, one of Japan’s largest conglomerates, have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to support commercial scale-up and customer acquisition for Skeleton’s supercapacitors in the Asian automotive sector, with a strong focus on electrified vehicles and hydrogen transportation.

As part of this agreement, Marubeni Corporation also made an equity investment on top of the €41.3 million Series D financing round announced by Skeleton in November 2020. The sum of Marubeni’s investment was not disclosed.

Estonian startup Skeleton Technologies has raised €41.3 million ($48.5 million) in Series D financing round, bringing its total capital raised to over €93 million ($109 million).

New investors include leading European industrial investors and a group of entrepreneurs "that grew payments company Adyen from its inception to successful IPO", according to reports from Skeleton. In addition, all existing investors in the company joined the equity raise: EIT InnoEnergy early investors in European gigafactory startup Northvolt — FirstFloor Capital, MM Grupp and Harju Elekter.

Estonian startup Skeleton Technologies is reportedly developing a graphene-enhanced SuperBattery that can be charged in just 15 seconds, and can go through hundreds of thousands of charge-recharge cycles without degrading. It was also reported that Skeleton recently signed a €1 billion letter of intent with a leading automotive manufacturer to bring the technology to market, most likely in 2023 according to Taavi Madiberk, founder and chief executive of Skeleton.

This will be a key enabler of the energy transition, says Madiberk. In most cases we see that batteries are not able to fully replace the older technologies — we still have hybrid vehicles or the need for backup generators.

Skeleton Technologies, European developer of graphene-based supercapacitors announced that it has signed a large-scale contract with Medcom to deploy its supercapacitors for Warsaw's Tram network.

Skeletons supercapacitor systems are situated onboard trams and provide energy savings by recuperating braking energy and reusing it for acceleration - and significantly decreasing the total energy consumption significantly. The system also protects the grid infrastructure as it shaves power peaks.

Skeleton Technologies, European developer of graphene-based supercapacitors and energy storage systems for transportation and grid applications, will supply supercapacitor systems to Å koda Electric, a traction equipment manufacturer, for 114 trams to be delivered by Å koda Transportation to Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Ludwigshafen in Germany.

The system recuperates the braking energy of the trams and uses it for re-acceleration, saving energy and decreasing costs. Supercapacitors are ideal for this application due to their high efficiency, reliability, and ability to recharge in seconds.

A study led by John Heinzel from the US Naval Surface Warfare Center in Philadelphia, along with researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington, has compared the performance of supercapacitors from four different manufacturers: Maxwell, Ioxus, JM Energy, and Skeleton. Of the four tested, only the Skeleton supercapacitors are graphene-enhanced.

The team studied cells from the four different manufacturers under high pulsed load conditions to measure their power density into low-impedance loads. The researchers found that the Skeleton cell far outperformed the other cells tested, and graphene was mentioned as the probable cause for this efficiency.

Skeleton Technologies, an Estonia-based company that produces graphene-based supercapacitors and energy storage systems, is to invest €25 million in its plant located in the German state of Saxony. With this investment, Skeleton aims to expand its research and development as well as scale its production.

"In 2017, we announced our first stage in Saxony — €6.2 million were invested in the production of ultracapacitors in Großröhrsdorf," Skeleton co-founder and CEO Taavi Madiberk said in a press release. "We have successfully entered the market and helped save fuel and reduce emissions from buses, trucks, railway vehicles and industrial machinery".

Skeleton Technologies and British bus manufacturer Wrights Group have announced the signing of a high-volume, multi-million-euro contract for the next 5 years. Skeleton Technologies will supply graphene-based supercapacitors to the latest KERS enabled hybrid-electric double and single deck buses produced by the Wrights Group.

The demand to reduce CO₂ emissions in city centers is one of the key drivers for WrightBus to implement new technology which cuts such emissions by saving fuel. The integration of graphene-based supercapacitors into test WrightBus double deck buses reportedly enables a 36% fuel saving compared to a UK-based EuroVI diesel bus baseline. It also adds at least another 3 passengers to the capacity of these buses compared to a lithium battery-based hybrid equivalent.

Skeleton Technologies has announced the signing of a distribution agreement with Sumitomo Corporation Europe, with the aim of providing energy storage solutions for the rapidly growing hybrid electric and electric vehicle industry.

In electric vehicles, graphene-based supercapacitors can be used in tandem with lithium-ion batteries, doubling the battery lifetime and downsizing the cell receiving the peak power from supercapacitors and the long-term energy from the batteries.

Skeleton Technologies has unveiled SkelGrid, an energy storage system for industrial power applications, based on the company's curved graphene supercapacitor technology. The system is meant to ensure reliable power quality in manufacturing plants, data centers, and more.

SkelGrid is said to provide the highest power and energy density on the market in the industry standard electrical cabinet or container format. The SkelGrid product family is based on SkelRack modules, which can be installed in industry standard 19, 600mm deep cabinets, and in 20 or 40 ft. containers to provide short-term power at the megawatt level. The SkelGrid family has maximum power ratings ranging from 520 kW up to 1500 kW, and as a modular product, its components can be configured according to customers’ needs.