Entrepreneur UK's London 100: Polaron From lab to EV range—Polaron's AI boosts battery performance and speeds up material discovery

By Patricia Cullen

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Polaron
Polaron founders, Steve Kench, Isaac Squires and Sam Cooper

Industry: Artificial Intelligence

Shoreditch-based start-up Polaron, founded in 2023 by Isaac Squires, Steve Kench and Sam Cooper, has developed a state-of-the-art generative AI model that explores thousands of material designs in under a day - a task that takes current simulations 50 years.

Spinning out their research at Imperial College London, Polaron can improve battery energy density by 10% - equivalent to adding 20 miles of range to an electric vehicle (EV).

The start-up leverages microstructural image data to bridge the gap between the way materials are made and their performance. The technology empowers engineers to characterise materials, quantify microstructural variation, and optimise microstructural designs faster than ever before.

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle, said of the start-up: "Polaron exemplifies the promise of AI."

The company's vision is to harness the power of AI to accelerate the development of the materials that are critical to a sustainable future.

Patricia Cullen

Features Writer

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