French Battery Startup VoltR Raises €22 Million to Scale Lithium-Battery Remanufacturing
French battery manufacturer VoltR has secured €22 million in new financing to accelerate the industrialisation of its lithium-battery remanufacturing business.
The package includes €16 million in equity from Bpifrance’s SPI 2 Fund and Decathlon PULSE, alongside €6 million in grants through France’s Première Usine programme. The funding will support factory expansion, production automation and the development of technologies for diagnosing and repurposing used battery cells.
VoltR is based in Verrières-en-Anjou in western France and currently employs around 40 people.
Giving Lithium Batteries a Second Life
Rather than manufacturing batteries entirely from new cells, VoltR collects batteries reaching the end of their first life, evaluates individual cells and selects those that can still be used.
The recovered cells are then incorporated into new batteries designed around their remaining performance. VoltR says this approach allows batteries to meet the same performance and certification requirements as conventional products while extending the industrial life of existing cells.
The company has already brought more than 20,000 remanufactured batteries to market, serving applications including power tools, micromobility, home automation, smart cities and mobile energy storage.
Production Capacity to Increase Sixfold
The new financing will allow VoltR to double the size of its Verrières-en-Anjou plant and increase production capacity sixfold within two years.
The company also plans to double its workforce, creating around 40 additional jobs as it expands its industrial operations. Investment will go toward automating production, improving cell diagnostics and developing repurposing technologies for larger volumes of batteries.
VoltR intends to use the expanded capacity as a base for entering additional European markets and handling more batteries reaching the end of their first use.
Remanufacturing Adds Another Step Before Recycling
VoltR's model sits between first-use battery manufacturing and final recycling. Instead of immediately sending cells at the end of their first life for material recovery, the company aims to reuse cells that still retain sufficient performance.
The approach could reduce demand for newly manufactured cells and make greater use of the energy and resources already invested in producing existing batteries. VoltR and its investors also see remanufacturing as a way to strengthen Europe's battery supply chain, which remains dependent on imported materials and components.
The company now wants to turn its existing proof of concept into an industrial-scale operation. Its expansion will test whether battery remanufacturing can become a larger part of Europe's circular battery economy alongside conventional production and recycling.
