Innovator's Edge: How Silicon Valley-Based Sakuu Created The World's First Platform That Prints Battery Electrodes "It is not enough to simply dream up a clever new way to make batteries," says founder Robert Bagheri.

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute, a global nonprofit foundation established by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund, hosted its inaugural FII8 Investment Day during its 8th annual gathering in Riyadh last November.

The FII8 Investment Day, held under the theme of "Infinite Horizons: Investing Today, Shaping Tomorrow," showcased startup companies whose tech solutions are tackling world's most pressing global challenges in artificial intelligence and robotics, sustainability, health and education.

As the electric mobility sector grows worldwide, the demand for lithium-ion battery cells is expected to increase from approximately 700 gigawatt-hours in 2022 to 4,700 gigawatt-hours in 2030, as per global business statistics platform Statista. But on the flip side, the production of such batteries has an obvious environmental impact, especially on the supply chain, owing to carbon emissions during its production, as well as the other pollution and waste that is created. To by-pass such eco hazards and still address the existing demand, Silicon Valley-headquartered Sakuu has come up with the concept of printing battery electrodes- an invention that earned the startup a spot in TIME magazine's list of best inventions in the Materials and Manufacturing category for 2024.

"Global energy transition requires new manufacturing solutions that enable battery producers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to successfully meet this incredible surge in demand—and do it more sustainably," notes Robert Bagheri, founder and CEO of Sakuu. "That's why we are the world's first manufacturing platform for printing battery electrodes. Sakuu's revolutionary dry-electrode printing technology enables more advanced and sustainable battery manufacturing at scale, including elimination of toxic materials and solvents such as N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone and Polytetrafluoroethylene, reduction in cost and complexity, and ability to work with a very wide range of both current and future active materials and battery chemistries."

In its bid to rethink battery manufacturing, Sakuu's Kavian® Platform offers dry-process manufacturing innovations thus include the first fully functional printed lithium-metal battery, the first printed and patterned lithium-metal anode, and the first printed lithium-metal battery in a custom form factor. "Sakuu has developed unique, proprietary additive manufacturing technologies engineered to enable active materials to be printable and to meet or exceed current performance in the end product at commercial scale," Bagheri adds. "It is not enough to simply dream up a clever new way to make batteries. Our solution also addresses the real-world obstacles that limit battery manufacturers and OEMs from harnessing innovation to transform production: that means cutting waste, capturing new efficiencies, reducing emissions, integrating with existing systems while enabling future augmentation — all with demonstrable proof that Sakuu can help them better meet today's demands as well as tomorrow's."

Sakuu won the FII8 Innovator 2024 title at the FII8 Investment Day. Source: Sakuu/FII8

With a mission to become "the gold standard for battery manufacturing everywhere," Sakuu has been on a journey to work with battery manufacturers across the globe to help them produce more cost effective and sustainable batteries at a very large scale. Sustainability being "one of the key pillars of Sakuu's Kavian platform," has also meant that it is a vital aspect of how Bagheri and his team measure the startup's impact, apart from the obvious other barometers of growth such as profits and expansion. "We believe that electrification is key to the future to support global climate goals and a more sustainable industry, and that our societal impact can be measured by improvement in two key measures," Bagheri explains. "The first is material efficiency, wherein more efficient material utilization, elimination of solvents, and reduction in energy required for manufacturing process all serve to reduce the impact on the environment. The second is the global footprint. Reducing battery manufacturing complexity also enables sustainable manufacturing to be regionalized closer to the point of use, therefore supporting localized circular economies."

Such an approach helped Sakuu clinch the title of FII8 Innovator 2024 at the most recent edition of the FII conference in Riyadh. And as Bagheri now gears up for a promising 2025, he does so with a staunch confidence in the team that he works with. "Sakuu's success is fundamentally driven by our unique blend of multitalented mechanical/electrical engineers, materials/electrochemical scientists, and technical specialists with deep and complementary mass-manufacturing, energy, automotive, and precision technology expertise," he declares. "It is indeed our people and their combined vision and practical knowledge that enables the innovative technologies and methods we supply."