STOCKS | Nyobolt Finds a Market in Warehouse Robots, Reaching a $936 Million Valuation

Nyobolt, founded in 2020 by Clare Grey, is supplying batteries to hundreds of small non-humanoid robots used in Walmart warehouses. According to Sina Finance, Walmart plans to deploy the robots across all 42 of its large regional distribution centers in the United States. In May, Symbotic led Nyobolt's $59 million Series C round, valuing the company at $936 million. The article said the commercial progress shows how next-generation batteries are opening new markets, even as several U.S. battery startups have struggled in recent years amid weak U.S. electric vehicle sales. Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter said humanoid robots may never reach meaningful commercial scale, while non-humanoid robots have already achieved scaled sales. He added that Symbotic's customers can recover the cost of the robots in less than five years through labor savings. Nyobolt's batteries use a niobium-based anode instead of a traditional graphite anode. The company and others said the batteries can complete 20,000 charge cycles, at least four times the number of cycles before traditional batteries are retired. Grey said warehouses are a natural fit for Nyobolt because robots can return for a few minutes of charging and then resume work. The article also said Echion Technologies, which is based in Massachusetts, and Indiana battery maker EnPower announced a partnership earlier this month to produce niobium batteries for industrial robots and AI data centers.