Battery manufacturers pay for electrode coating processes that can hit throughput, energy bills and capex. Anaphite is selling into that workflow with dry electrode coating technology designed to remove the solvent-based drying stage, a step the company estimates represents roughly 30-40% of total cell manufacturing energy and cost.
UK-based Anaphite has announced a EUR 1.1 million funding package involving Innovate UK support and matching investment participation from Elbow Beach and World Fund, according to deal information provided. The company and trade coverage link the funding to advancing and industrialising its dry coating development, including work to extend dry-coating to LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cathodes.
Why this funding fits the current EV supply-chain playbook
This round reads as a with-trend signal: public funding paired with specialist climate and industrial investors to push a manufacturing process from lab validation toward line-ready deployment. In battery manufacturing, that transition is where timelines stretch and budgets get consumed. Dry coating is attractive precisely because it targets a known bottleneck: the ovens, solvent recovery and the energy-intensive drying step embedded in conventional wet coating.
Anaphite’s positioning is straightforward. If a cell maker can eliminate drying ovens and solvent handling, it can potentially:
- Cut energy consumption and operating cost
- Reduce capex tied to large drying infrastructure
- Simplify plant layout and improve line throughput
- Lower CO2 associated with manufacturing
Anaphite and industry coverage have put numbers behind the claim. The company has estimated dry coating could save around 3.57 kg CO2 per kWh, and it has highlighted the potential for multi-million tonne CO2 reductions if applied at scale. While such extrapolations depend on adoption rates and manufacturing baselines, they speak to why grant bodies and climate investors are willing to underwrite industrialisation risk.
Funding context: repeat signals of continued investor interest
This EUR 1.1 million package sits alongside a pattern of smaller, programmatic financings reported over the last year, including follow-on funding after a Series A. Coverage has cited amounts such as about £1.4 million (around EUR 1.6 million) and other follow-on sums aimed at accelerating industrialisation of Anaphite’s dry electrode coating technology.
It is worth noting that the exact headline figure varies across public reporting. Multiple outlets describe an Innovate UK grant or matched funding package with participation from Elbow Beach and World Fund tied to Anaphite’s LFP dry-coating programme, but not all sources consistently report a specific EUR 1.1 million line item. What is consistent is the structure and intent: Innovate UK grant support alongside matching private capital, directed at scaling the technology from development into manufacturing-ready capability.
Commercial lens: where switching costs and pricing power come from
For Anaphite, the commercial challenge is not proving that drying is expensive. It is winning a place on the factory roadmap.
Dry coating touches core production equipment, quality control, and yield. That creates high switching costs once a process is validated, but it also implies a long sales cycle upfront. Expect customers to demand:
- Line-level validation on target chemistries (including LFP)
- Evidence on yield stability, defect rates and consistency at higher speeds
- Integration plans for existing coating lines or clear ROI for new lines
- Clear ownership of process IP and repeatable commissioning playbooks
If Anaphite can demonstrate robust throughput and quality, pricing power typically comes from sharing in capex avoided and energy savings, rather than charging purely on materials margin. The retention driver is then operational dependency: once a manufacturer redesigns its coating and drying stages around a dry process, switching back is costly.
Likely use of proceeds
Anaphite and press reporting describe the funding as enabling scale-up and industrialisation of its dry coating development. Based on that (and typical execution paths for manufacturing process tech), likely focus areas include pilot-line work, engineering hires, and customer-facing validation projects. This is inference, not a disclosed spend plan.
Competitive reality
Dry coating is a well-known prize in batteries, with multiple routes being explored across the industry. Anaphite’s differentiation, based on public statements, is its focus on industrialising dry coating for cathodes and extending it to LFP, where cost pressure and manufacturing scale make process efficiency particularly valuable.
What this enables
- Faster progress from R&D to manufacturing-grade validation for dry electrode coating
- Targeted development work on LFP cathode dry coating, aligned with high-volume chemistries
- Shared-risk funding structure that can de-risk early industrialisation for private investors
What to watch
- Evidence of repeatable line performance: yield, consistency and throughput at scale
- Customer validation milestones and whether pilots translate into long-term supply or licensing deals
- How Anaphite positions monetisation: equipment/process licensing vs services vs materials-linked models
- Whether future funding is tied to specific OEM or cell-maker partnerships