After years of hype, StoreDot turns to SPAC deal valuing the battery maker at $800 million
Israeli developer of extreme fast-charging EV batteries has signed a deal with Andretti Acquisition Corp. II as funding markets tighten in the sector.
StoreDot, the Israeli battery company best known for its promise of extreme fast charging for electric vehicles, has agreed to go public through a merger with Andretti Acquisition Corp. II, a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal that values the company at $800 million pre-money.
The transaction, announced last month, will combine StoreDot with the Andretti SPAC under a newly formed holding company to be named XFC Battery, whose shares are expected to trade on Nasdaq. Assuming no redemptions by Andretti’s public shareholders, the combined company would carry a pro forma enterprise value of $882 million. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
The agreement represents a significant moment in StoreDot's long and capital-intensive effort to commercialize a technology that aims to remove one of the electric vehicle industry’s most persistent obstacles: charging time. The company says its battery cells can deliver 100 miles of range in five minutes, with a roadmap to reduce that time to three minutes.
Founded in 2012 by Doron Myersdorf, Prof. Simon Litsyn, and Prof. Gil Rosenman, StoreDot has spent more than a decade developing its technology and has raised roughly $200 million to date. Myersdorf, StoreDot’s CEO, will continue to lead the company following the merger. Its investors include Roman Abramovich, the Wertheimer family, BP, Daimler, Samsung Ventures, GlenRock, Singulariteam, and TDK. In 2022, the company raised a $70 million Series D round at a reported valuation of $1.5 billion, a figure that reflected peak optimism around electric vehicle infrastructure and next-generation battery technologies.
The valuation attached to the SPAC transaction is notably lower, underscoring the broader reset that has swept through both the electric vehicle sector and the SPAC market. Once a favored route for capital-hungry technology companies, SPACs have fallen out of favor with investors after a wave of underperforming listings, higher interest rates, and increased regulatory scrutiny.
Under the terms of the transaction, existing StoreDot shareholders will roll over 100% of their equity into the new public company. Andretti Acquisition Corp. II currently holds approximately $242 million in cash in trust, though that amount is subject to shareholder redemptions, a common uncertainty in SPAC transactions.
StoreDot plans to continue operating with an asset-light business model, licensing its technology to battery manufacturers rather than building its own factories. The company says its batteries are designed as a “drop-in” solution compatible with existing lithium-ion production lines, a strategy intended to lower barriers to adoption and shorten the path to mass production.
The company says it is already engaged in advanced development and validation programs, known in the industry as B-sample testing, with global automotive manufacturers. Such programs are a critical step before batteries can be approved for use in commercial vehicles, though they do not guarantee large-scale supply agreements.
