EIC Accelerator Winner Addionics and the 3D Battery Foil Race

Every lithium-ion cell contains two thin sheets of metal foil, copper on one side and aluminium on the other, that carry electrons in and out of the electrodes. Battery makers have spent decades on the chemistry coated onto those foils and comparatively little on the foils themselves. Addionics, a start-up with its research base in Tel Aviv and its parent company in London, bets that replacing the flat foil with a porous three-dimensional metal structure can make almost any cell charge faster, hold more energy and run cooler. The European Union helped pay for that bet in 2020, and carmakers' venture arms followed. The race it entered, to industrialise a new kind of battery foil, is still open: Addionics has built a pilot line but, on its latest filed accounts, has not yet booked revenue.

The European Commission's list of winners of the 8 January 2020 EIC Accelerator pilot cut-off names ADDIONICS IL LTD of Tel Aviv, project "Addionics", as a grant-only winner, with no partner company. Israel is associated to Horizon 2020, which made the company eligible, according to the Commission's list of associated countries. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €2,253,689.38 towards a total cost of €3,219,556.25, for a project that ran from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2022.

Where Addionics Stands Now

Addionics is operating. The Israeli register lists Addionics IL Ltd as an active private company that filed its annual report for 2025, according to the Israeli Corporations Authority open data and OpenCorporates. Its UK parent is active and filed share allotments dated November 2024 and March 2026 with Companies House in July 2026.

What the company sells, and to whom, has shifted. In December 2025 Elron Ventures invested an undisclosed sum in a pre-Series C round, with the stated aim of steering Addionics towards defence and space, where batteries are "mission-critical", according to Techtime; Elron lists Addionics in its deep and defence tech portfolio. The same month it announced a partnership with PNT Materials of South Korea to develop prismatic lithium iron phosphate cells for energy storage, aimed at AI data centres, with pilots planned in 2026 and production in 2027 to 2028, according to the announcement, which Techtime also reported. On 9 July 2026 it launched "Autonomous Architecture", a cell design marketed for robots, drones, satellites and defence systems that run around the clock, according to Robotics Tomorrow and The Defense Post. Neither names a customer.

The core technology has not changed: every announcement still rests on the 3D current collector. What has changed is the market. The electric car, the centre of the EIC proposal and of the 2024 fundraising, is no longer the headline.

The Technology: Porous Metal Instead of Flat Foil

In a conventional cell, the anode and cathode materials are coated as paste onto flat foil. The CORDIS objective argues that this "2D architecture" limits how fast electrons move, raises internal resistance, traps heat under heavy loads and stops makers from simply coating thicker electrodes to add capacity. Addionics instead grows a porous 3D metal structure by electrodeposition, a process it calls 3D electro-printing, so that the active material sits inside a conductive scaffold. The company says the approach works regardless of chemistry and drops into existing coating lines; it names NMC, LFP, silicon, lithium polymer and solid-state cells as targets, according to electrive.

The performance claims vary by source and none could be checked against independent tests. The project's final CORDIS report claims "greater than 40% higher accessible capacity" and charging "in 50% shorter time" than conventional batteries. In 2024 the company described a 20% to 30% improvement over current market solutions, according to Calcalist. No peer-reviewed comparison or third-party cell test was found.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The EIC grant followed a four-month SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility study in 2019, worth €50,000 of EU money, which produced a two-year development plan and a five-year financial model, according to CORDIS. The full project set out to make collectors for full-size pouch cells, build a production-like electro-printing machine, set up a small cell line with subcontractors, validate cells with commercial partners in the lab and in a vehicle test bed, and finally test them in a vehicle.

The final report, covering July 2021 to June 2022, marks its own progress plainly. Several items were "Achieved", several "In progress", and in-vehicle validation was "To be done", with the note that "more time will be required". No later announcement reports an in-vehicle test.

1. Optimised 3D collector structureDeliveredRange of collectors made and built into single-layer pouch cells, per CORDIS.
2. Machine for continuous collector productionDelivered"Developed, manufactured and put to work", per CORDIS.
3. Multilayer pouch cellsPartly2Ah cells with silicon anodes tested; 5Ah cells only started at project end.
4. Pilot production of collectorsLate"In progress" at project end; a 1 MWh line opened in Tel Aviv in January 2023.
5. Lab validation with commercial partnersPartlyInitial tests under way; no partner has published results.
6. In-vehicle validationNot delivered"To be done" in the final report; never announced since.

For a two-year grant, that is real engineering progress: the collectors, the machine and working multilayer cells exist. But the project ended well short of its final stage, so the award counts as partly delivered.

What Addionics Has Achieved Since the Award

The money came in steps. In April 2020, between selection and signature, Addionics announced $3.5 million from investors led by Next Gear Ventures alongside the EU grant, according to TechCrunch. In January 2022 it raised a $27 million Series A led by Deep Insight, with Magna, Novelis and JX Nippon Mining & Metals among the investors, according to eeNews Europe. In July 2024 GM Ventures and Deep Insight led a $39 million Series B with Scania, according to Globes and Calcalist; the group accounts record $39.6 million of cash from that round. Avery Dennison joined the Series B in April 2025. Calcalist put total funding at $79 million in 2024; Techtime gave about $80 million in December 2025.

Industrial milestones were announced on a steeper curve than the record supports. In January 2023 Addionics opened a pilot line in central Tel Aviv with 1 MWh of capacity and targets of about 100 MWh by the end of 2024 and 1 GWh in 2025, according to Globes and Indian Chemical News. No figure has been published to show whether either target was met. In February 2024 the company announced a $400 million plan for US plants making 3D copper foil for 90 GWh of batteries a year, with the first plant producing from 2027, according to electrive and Calcalist. No site has been announced since. The 2024 group accounts state that the group's non-current assets are in the UK and Israel, and the US subsidiary's registered office is a Cupertino address.

The Money

The group accounts for 2024, filed in December 2025, are the first audited consolidated figures. The group "generated no external revenue in the current or prior year". Its net loss grew from $10.95 million in 2023 to $15.21 million in 2024, and accumulated losses reached $39.16 million. The Series B lifted cash from $7.60 million to $30.17 million and equity from $9.77 million to $34.61 million. Grant income came from Innovate UK and the Israel-US BIRD Foundation; the EIC grant, which ended in 2022, no longer appears. The auditors found no material uncertainty about going concern.

The team grew too. Average headcount rose from 39 to 58, and manufacturing staff from 2 to 14. Press figures run higher: Globes counted 50 staff in February 2023 and 60 in July 2024, while Calcalist reported 75 in July 2024, 60 of them in Israel. The sources also disagree on the founding year: Globes and Calcalist give 2017, the year the UK parent was incorporated, while Avery Dennison's release says 2018, the year the Israeli company was registered.

Why Europe Should Care

Batteries are among the EU's most explicit industrial priorities. The Commission launched the European Battery Alliance in October 2017, when Europe made about 3% of the world's battery cells, with an action plan covering raw materials, cell manufacturing and research. A drop-in component that raises cell performance without new production lines fits that plan well, and the Swedish truckmaker Scania invested in Addionics' Series B.

The European payoff is thinner than the fit. The EU-funded company is Israeli, its parent is British, its manufacturing plans pointed to the United States and its newest partner is Korean. Its staff work mainly in Israel and the UK. If 3D current collectors reach gigafactories, the public record so far does not show that the factories making them will be in the EU.

The Verdict

Addionics has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.