Meet Claudiu Bucur, Amir Rmaile, & Hassan Rmaile, Founders of Piersica
Invest in startups like Piersica alongside Climate Capital here.
Founders: Claudiu Bucur, Amir Rmaile & Hassan Rmaile
Motto: Piersica is a battery technology company pushing the envelope to triple the energy density of commercial lithium ion, boosting electrification of many economies, including the transportation sector.
Year Founded: 2020
Stage: Seed
Location: Tallahassee
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Climate Capital: What made you want to solve this problem?
Claudiu: High energy density energy storage technologies are key to the ambitious societal aspirations of the 21st century of a cleaner environment. Safe electric propulsion and energy storage for utilities are key tenets of clean, renewable energy. In this context, vehicle manufacturers are intensely competing to electrify their cars, seeking safe battery technologies that allow their Electric Vehicles (EV) to drive longer distances with fewer and shorter charging stops. However, current commodity Li-ion batteries are limited by performance and safety constraints, as they comprise liquid organic electrolytes that are flammable in nature. Piersica will bring a next generation Li-ion battery, solid state in nature, which can satisfy these expectations. Such battery needs to contain an advanced and innovative separator, anode and cathode parts, along with new call assembly techniques, to meet both performance and safety requirements. Once Piersica's battery parts are fully developed, they will enable battery technology exceeding the primary 2030 market requirements for EV batteries and facilitate the adoption of electric airplanes in the same manner as conventional Li-ion batteries enabled the EV revolution. The mature technology will provide significant advantages, tripling the energy densities of state-of-the-art solid-state batteries, providing also higher safety and faster charging rate at reduced cost.
Climate Capital: What are you building?
Claudiu: Piersica is building a next generation Li-ion battery, solid state in nature, that will exceed the primary 2030 market requirements for EV batteries and facilitate the adoption of electric airplanes in the same manner as conventional Li-ion batteries enabled the EV revolution. The mature technology will provide significant advantages, tripling the energy densities of state-of-the-art solid-state batteries, providing also higher safety and faster charging rate at reduced cost.
Climate Capital: What is next?
Claudiu:
1- Four SBIR grants/contracts in 2022 (1 grant from NSF,1 contract with ARMY, 2 with Air Force). Each of these 4 grants/contracts is peer reviewed, meaning that some of the best and brightest scientists in the battery industry have identified the Piersica technology as having a strong potential to achieve commercialization. This is an outstanding validation of our plan and our technology progress to date.
2- CRI (Chain Reaction Innovation) Award. Paid postdoc, 2 years, at Argonne National lab, paid fully by the award.
3- Pre-seed one fundraise of 1000000 from 5 VCs and dozen angels
4- JDA & MTA signed with a couple of dozens of OEMs from different industries, including tier 1 automotive OEMS, to test our materials and components that we have developed.
Next steps for Piersica include plans to establish joint ventures with large battery manufacturers and suppliers, vehicle OEMs, power tool manufacturers & government contractors. In addition, Piersica will license the proprietary processes.
Climate Capital: What are the core elements of the culture you are building at your company?
Claudiu: The core elements are leadership, purpose and values, employee empowerment, professional development & growth opportunities, & open communication at all levels.
Fostering growth through:
- Providing ongoing training opportunities
- Creating development plans specific to each employee
- Supporting employees through mentorship, and leading by example
- Praise them for their hard work and all achievements, even tiny ones
Climate Capital: What are the key challenges as you scale your company?
Claudiu: Technical challenges top any list. This is a hard tech, and progress can seem slow for people looking outside in. Our full team is loaded with R&D experts, who have done this multiple times in both at corporate and startup levels.
Some of the unforeseen challenges were: grants applications, as we were unsuccessful for a full year, before hiring a professional grant writing agency to help us out. Another challenge that popped up was hiring people, as this is a very hot and competitive space, and not easy to come across superstars to hire!
Climate Capital: What have you learned that you want to share with other founders?
Claudiu:
- Building a strong and complementary team gets you halfway there...
- Sell the problem, not the product
- It's never a solo effort, it's always a teamwork
- Be ready to fail 100 hundred times, before you succeed once
Climate Capital: How can the broader climate community help you on your mission?
Claudiu: Supporting us (via money, time, & expertise), and networking (e.g., connecting us to players in this clean tech / electrification space)
