I-TEN raises €10 million for its industrial start and to accelerate its development

I-TEN, a firm specialized in solid and rechargeable micro-batteries, announced today the closing of a sizeable €10 million Series B financing round with a group of new investors led by Eren Groupe and Habert Dassault Finances, and with its longstanding investors since 2014, the funds managed by Demeter Partners, Innovacom and Kreaxi.

The funding consists of two stages: a first tranche of €6 million and a second tranche of €4 million to follow in a few months.

Founded by Fabien Gaben in 2011, I-TEN is a young company made up of 15 employees, based in Lyon, that has designed, and developed rechargeable and all solid-state micro-batteries, manufactured with ceramics layers just a few microns thick. I-TEN’s proprietary technologies have numerous applications, including an ability to operate in harsh environments and use for SMD assembly (“Surface Mount Devices”) in electronics circuit boards.

Key strengths of I-TEN’s micro-batteries lie in a unique combination of value added characteristics:

• Record downsizing to 1mm3,
• Capacities of 100 to 1000 μAh for sizes of 1 to 5mm3,
• Exceptional lifetime, more than twice the lifetime of conventional Lithium-Ion micro-batteries,
• Resistance to high temperatures allowing for welding and sterilization, and for operating in harsh environments with over 100ºC,
• Eco-friendly design: rechargeable, non-flammable, with no heavy metals, no lithium metal and no liquid electrolytes, I-TEN micro-batteries can be recycled like any other electronic chip.

The first tranche financing will allow I-TEN to industrialize its first generation of revolutionary micro-batteries with high-profile clients in several key markets such as watches, sensors, Internet of Things, healthcare, security, defence and numerous important electronic applications (including “back-up” and “always-on” functions, power supply, smart cards, etc.). The second tranche will be used mainly to fund the development of I-TEN’s new generations of micro-batteries and new formats tailored to a large spectrum of uses.

I-TEN’s technologies are protected by several patent families and were developed with the support of several leading research organizations in France, including ENS in Lyon and the University of Burgundy.

I-TEN has twice won the international French “World Innovation Contest”, in 2015 and in 2017, and as a result, enjoys financial support from BPI France and potential funding from the €150 million Government fund dedicated to its “Investment Program for the Future”.