UK battery startup Britishvolt has found short-term funding from an unnamed source to keep the business running and staff will take a temporary pay cut while as the company seeks longer-term financing, it said on Wednesday.
Britishvolt plans to build a £3.8bn gigafactory project in northern England. Its 300 workers have agreed to an unspecified wage cut for November to further reduce short-term costs.
The company, which planned to create 3,000 jobs in the north-east of England, had been preparing to appoint administrators on Monday after the government turned down a request to bring forward £30m in previously promised grant funding.
Britishvolt was launched less than three years ago with aims to serve the growing demand for electric car batteries. As of the summer, Britishvolt had only raised around £200m and pushed back its production timeline citing “difficult external economic headwinds.”
“While the weakening economic situation is negatively impacting much business investment at present, at Britishvolt we are continuing to pursue positive ongoing discussions with potential investors,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The result is we have now secured the necessary near-term investment that we believe enables us to bridge over the coming weeks to a more secure funding position for the future.”
“To further reduce our near-term costs, our dedicated employee team has also voluntarily agreed to a temporary salary reduction for the month of November.”
Britishvolt’s executive team will work unpaid for November, while directors will receive 25% pay and most of the rest of the workforce will receive 50%, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Britishvolt had received backing from mining giant Glencore, which kicked off a funding round for the startup in February.
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com
