Octet Scientific, Inc., a Cleveland-based maker of specialty chemicals for safe, sustainable batteries, has completed its seed-stage fundraising round, led by the Advanced Manufacturing Fund (AMF), powered by JumpStart Ventures with support from MAGNET. The AMF invests in early-stage physical-product and manufacturing-related ventures.

Octet is the world’s first developer of specialty chemicals for zinc-based batteries, an inexpensive, nontoxic, and sustainable alternative to lithium-ion and lead-acid. Zinc batteries are emerging in a variety of applications including backup power for data centers and grid storage to support renewable energy, and Octet’s proprietary chemicals will play a critical role in the continuing improvement of these promising young technologies.

“It’s becoming clear that zinc batteries have massive potential and that we’ve got the chemicals to get the most out of them,” said founder and CEO Onas Bolton. “We’ve got Octet in position to lead this new market and this funding puts critical wind in our sails.”

The investment will complement the $1.45 million in federal grant funding Octet received from the National Science Foundation SBIR Program, allowing the company to scale its current prototypes and develop others for broader markets.

“We’ve had the pleasure of engaging with Octet as they’ve grown and developed their product to this stage,” said Andrea Navratil, Director of New Ventures at MAGNET. “The AMF readily saw the value this technology could offer to sustainability efforts in the alternative energy industry and was thrilled to be an early-stage investor.”

The funding will support Octet’s non-grant activities through 2024 as it executes scale-up of its first large product line. Currently, Octet’s proprietary chemical products are being sold and tested at small volumes to battery manufacturers in the US, Canada, Japan, Europe and Australia.

“It’s a time of opportunity in the battery space.,” said Hardik Desai, JumpStart Ventures Managing Partner. “Octet has put itself in a position to be the specialty chemicals leader in an emerging market with huge potential. This investment allows the company to maintain that position as it scales.”

About Octet
Octet Scientific, Inc. is ensuring that tomorrow’s cleanest energy is stored in the world’s cleanest batteries. Our OctoLyte™ electrolyte chemicals give safe, sustainable zinc-based batteries the high performance they need for devices, backup power, and on the grid. The world’s first company dedicated to optimizing zinc battery chemistry, Octet was founded in 2017 in Cleveland, OH and has won the support of the National Science Foundation and the State of Ohio. For more information visit www.octetsci.com.