We love batteries
Your laptop battery is low and the meeting started five minutes ago. Your car needs charging and your family are too tired for another stop. Your headphones don't last like they used to, and you're carrying your charger around for your ageing smartphone. We know the feeling. But it doesn't have to be like that.
We've accrued over a century of battery engineering expertise and have concentrated it on tackling fundamental issues with today's batteries. We've built the products we've always longed for and with them, your products can fulfil their full potential.
Welcome to Breathe.
Enabled by pioneering institutes
Our beliefs
Battery management hardware is commoditised
Battery management system hardware doesn’t matter today. It’s mature and it’s a commodity. It’s cost-driven and undifferentiated, and because of that, it’s outsourced. It’s simply the place to install software.
The real differentiation in battery systems today is in software, in cell chemistries and in optimal system design. Through each of these three paths, OEMs can influence performance, safety, development costs, engineering flexibility and risk, and create lasting brand experiences that drive revenue.
Of the three, we choose to pursue the software path, developing the toolchain with which our customers can excel.
The industry asks the wrong question of battery software
The battery industry looks to battery software to tell state of charge, state of health and state of power. The textbooks and papers are full of ways interesting ways to do it.
But asking software to do that alone is missing the bigger picture. The opportunity is more than inferring a battery’s status — it’s in improving it for lower cost. And software can do that, too.
Software can unlock better cycle life, more energy density, more consistent charging and cost savings - but the industry doesn’t know to ask for this, yet.
At Breathe, we build products that do far more than reporting battery status. We change what the battery can do. We’re in the business of enhancement.
Second life batteries are a red herring
The hype around repurposing used batteries for second life is overblown.
New battery costs will continue to fall. The economics of second life don’t stack up today, and they never will. Second life means limited lifetime, high risk with inadequately mapped health, and complex logistics.
The real opportunity for OEMs and end users is in maximising first-life battery performance at lower cost - delivering increasingly higher price:performance ratios - and in driving better recycling.
Since batteries will live one life and be recycled, our tools enable battery engineering teams to optimise batteries for their first life.
The battery industry will fragment
Today, battery cell manufacturers control both cell design and cell manufacturing - but this won’t last.
OEMs have never before spent so much for a single component. OEMs are uniquely positioned with first-hand knowledge of the optimal cell design to deliver system-level performance at the lowest cost. OEMs are incentivised to influence cell design, but lack adequate tooling to do so effectively in the face of cell manufacturer secrecy. And entry costs for cell designers are prohibitive without independent cell manufacturers.
Cell design will move to whoever has the best simulation tools. It will become democratised. Many cell manufacturers will become pure-play manufacturers only. Semiconductors showed the battery industry the future, and now the battery foundry model is inevitable. So at Breathe, we give OEMs and new entrants the tools to design their next battery.
Backed by leading climate & technology investors
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Speedinvest’s Deep Tech team are data scientists, physicists and founders who back visionary European companies with global aspirations.
Speedinvest invested in both Breathe’s £1.5M seed round and $10M USD series A.
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Lowercarbon Capital backs kickass companies that make real money slashing CO2 emissions, sucking carbon out of the sky, and buying us time to unf**k the planet.
Lowercarbon invested in both Breathe’s $10M USD series A round and $21M series B.
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Kinnevik backs challenger technology-enabled businesses in Europe and the US making everyday life easier and better for people around the world.
Kinnevik invested in Breathe’s $21M series B round.
Our DNA
Our mission
Do more with the power you have
We go above and beyond, sustainably, without consuming more resources. We wield our knowledge. We put energy in your hands, enabling you to do more.
Our offer
We make batteries better
We exist to do more with the power we have, too. We do it by being agents of change, believers in good and always making the complex simple. At the end of the day, we make batteries better.
We want to make a change and to push the industry forward. We’re discontent. That’s why we apply first principles thinking, always tackling the root cause issues. We challenge ourselves and others every day.
Believers in good
We’re genuine people who want to do good. We don’t have time for divas or posers. We’re resourceful and enjoy moving fast to build battery solutions, helping our customers to fight climate change, air pollution and electronic waste.
Making the complex simple
Our products incorporate some of the most technologically complex codes, simulations, methods and reactions in the universe. We see it as our job to make advanced science and engineering accessible. Even simple. We strip away the unnecessary until we find the core.
Our experience principles
Agents of change
Our founding team
Passion, experience, and a shared love for batteries.
FAQ
Do you produce a battery management system?
We do not. The battery management system hardware and safety layer is a commoditised product today and there are many respectable firms providing this. Instead, we provide the software toolchain to design, simulate and control batteries.
I already have fast charging. Can Breathe still help me?
In the old world, charging was “slow” or “fast”. Today, the world seeks charging experiences with the multi-faceted attributes that adaptive charging provides. Moreover, many Breathe Charge customers value the increased resource efficiency with which they can have the best charging, as much as the performance.
Still, if you’ve got charging sorted, Breathe Design and Breathe Model are available to provide you an integrated way of influencing cell design and developing better battery systems.
Why does battery simulation matter?
The battery industry is evolving rapidly, and consumer expectations are increasing. It is operationally and financially impossible to keep pace with this change, and with demand for lower-cost, better battery systems, without adopting simulation.
20+
nationalities
20+
PhDs
411
atmospheric C02 at founding (ppm)
Let’s talk better batteries
We’re always interested in hearing about your batteries.
Please submit your contact details and we’ll be in touch.