Electroflow just secured $10 million to flip the battery supply chain on its head. The startup claims its revolutionary three-step process can produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) material for 40% less than Chinese suppliers - potentially cutting thousands off EV prices while building domestic manufacturing capacity.
The EV industry has a China problem, and Electroflow thinks it has the solution. While automakers have fallen hard for lithium iron phosphate batteries - the cheap, durable chemistry that can slash vehicle costs by thousands - tariffs and geopolitical tensions have left American manufacturers scrambling for alternatives to Chinese suppliers who control 99% of the market.
"We think LFP is the missing ingredient for energy prosperity. The problem is it's literally 99% made in China," Electroflow co-founder and CEO Eric McShane told TechCrunch. "If we want to have a chance of competing, we've got to flip that script."
The Berkeley-based startup just closed a $10 million seed round led by Union Square Ventures and Voyager Ventures, with participation from Fifty Years and Harpoon Ventures. But the real news isn't the funding - it's the audacious claim that they can undercut Chinese producers by 40% while manufacturing entirely in the United States.
Chinese LFP material currently sells for around $4,000 per metric ton, roughly one-third the cost of U.S. production. McShane says Electroflow will hit $5,000 per ton by year-end with their V1 systems, then scale down to under $2,500 per ton - a price point that would fundamentally reshape the global battery supply chain.
The breakthrough came from an unlikely source: a Caltrain ride through Silicon Valley. Co-founder Evan Gardner was watching passengers move between train cars when inspiration struck. "He pictured them like ions moving between different chambers of a device," McShane recalled. "He sketched it out on a piece of paper and brought it over to me. I was like, oh man, that actually works."
That napkin sketch evolved into an electrochemical process that compresses the traditional 10-step lithium extraction and refinement process into just three steps. The technology uses battery-inspired anodes that absorb lithium ions from underground brines, then release them into carbonate-rich water to produce battery-ready lithium carbonate - all powered by electricity equivalent to a single U.S. household.
