Ingevity enters battery market with Nexeon deal

The specialty chemical maker Ingevity has spent $60 million to acquire an equity stake in Nexeon, a British developer of silicon-based anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Nexeon says it has raised more than $200 million overall. Earlier this year, for example, South Korea’s SKC put $30 million into the British firm. And in 2019 the German silicon maker Wacker Chemie invested an undisclosed sum in Nexeon in exchange for a 25% ownership stake. Nexeon says it will use the funds to expand production of the anode materials, which can have four times the energy density by weight of conventional graphite materials. For Ingevity, the investment marks an entry into the battery material market. The company says it will work with Nexeon on future battery products that use Ingevity’s activated carbon. Separately, Ingevity has struck a deal to acquire Ozark Materials, a maker of pavement-marking materials, for $325 million. Ingevity is already a provider of asphalt additives.