UK startup Molyon raises $4.6m to pilot lithium-sulfur battery

Molyon, a startup spun out of Cambridge University in the UK, has raised $4.6m in a seed funding round led by IQ Capital and Plural, with participation from Cambridge Enterprise, Parkwalk Advisors, and angel investors.

The fledgling company announced the news on its LinkedIn page. Molyon  was founded in 2024, and barely has a website but its stated goal is to develop next-generation lithium-sulfur batteries.

“We are offering long-life lithium-sulfur batteries which deliver twice the energy density of current lithium-ion batteries on the market,” the company said on LinkedIn.

It posted a link to an exclusive interview with TechCrunch in which its founders outlined their vision. Molyon CEO and co-founder Ismail Sami said one of their main motivations is improving the longevity of batteries by finding better, more naturally abundant materials. Sulfur, the company argues, is one such naturally abundant material.

Over the next few years, Molyon plans to commercialize a substance called metallic molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂). The company’s founders have spent some 15 years working on its development at Cambridge University’s Department of Materials Science.

MoS₂  is a naturally occurring semiconductor which Molyon turns into metal to make it conductive. The conductive MoS₂  is then used as an additive to the cathode resulting in a stable lithium-sulfur battery that can be charged over many cycles.

Sami told TechCrunch that previous attempts to commercialize lithium-sulfur have used carbon as the additive. However, he said, this caused problems with sulfur dissolving into the electrolyte and causing the battery to burn out fast.

Molyon has already patented its MoS₂  innovation. With its fresh funding from seed investors, it will begin to scale up the cathode at a pilot facility it plans to build in Cambridge. It hopes to eventually bring a solution to market, and its founders see potential applications for their battery technology in drones, robots, and electric vehicles. Sami explained that lithium-sulfur’s high energy per weight makes it particularly suitable for powering things that move.

He added that for the moment Molyon’s focus will be on developing the cathode and fine tuning the material aspect. Potential use cases will come later, he said.