Manchester battery firm Cellerate grows revenue 60% to £1.6M after £100K loan
What's the deal? CellerateDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Manchester-based battery technology specialist, has grown its annual revenue 60% — from £1M to £1.6M — after securing a £100,000 loan from the Northern Powerhouse Investment FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (NPIF) in 2023. The company designs and manufactures automated systems for battery research and production scale-up.
Founded in 2020 by Dr Richard Fields, Cellerate used the funding to relocate to a larger, custom-built facility in Manchester and invest in advanced manufacturing equipment. Since then, it has expanded its customer base from eight to 40 clients.
Why now? Global demand for energy storage technology is surging as industries race to electrify. Cellerate has ridden that wave, landing larger and more complex contracts while expanding internationally across Asia, Europe, and North America.
It is also contributing to a €20M Horizon Europe-funded Materials Acceleration Platform and investing in research talent through PhD and postdoctoral programmes at the University of Manchester.
What could go wrong? The company still manufactures everything in-house at its Manchester facility — a strength for quality control, but a potential bottleneck as demand scales. With plans to hire up to five new engineers, Cellerate faces the same talent competition as every other deep-tech firm in the UK.
It is also exploring materials beyond lithium-based batteries and developing pilot-scale manufacturing equipment — both capital-intensive bets that will require further funding to pay off.
The signal: Cellerate sits at the early growth stage, according to Dealroom, yet its fivefold jump in clients and 60% revenue lift off just £100,000 in debt financing underscores how capital-efficient the battery tooling layer can be compared with the cell manufacturers it serves. As gigafactory plans across Europe continue to face delays and cost overruns, the picks-and-shovels suppliers automating R&D and pilot production may prove a more bankable bet for regional funds like NPIF.
Read more: pro-manchester.co.uk
