Irvine-based startup Enevate Corp. has raised $24 million in its second financing round from new and existing investors.
Enevate makes rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for smartphones, tablets and other devices. It plans to use the proceeds to accelerate commercialization and production for its customers’ latest product lines.
New backers include San Jose-based CEC Capital LLC; Tsing Capital, the first clean tech venture capital firm in China; and Presidio Ventures, a Santa Clara-based unit of Sumitomo Corp. in Tokyo.
Enevate received more than $6 million in venture funding in its previous round from San Diego-based Mission Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson in Menlo Park.
Enevate is known as a “fabless” battery maker and is trying to replicate the business model of Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp., which designs chips in the U.S. and Europe, has them made in Asia, and sells them around the world.
Enevate touts its technology for smaller, thinner batteries for smartphones and tablets as longer-lasting. Batteries with longer life are coveted by cell phone makers and frustrated consumers.
Enevate was founded in 2005 and was known as Carbon Micro Battery Corp. until 2010.
It is part of a competitive field aiming to come up with longer-lasting batteries. Rivals include South Korea-based Samsung SDI Co., and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp., both of Japan.
—Chris Casacchia