Northvolt
EV batteriesSweden
New to Unitard
💀 Dead / Bankrupt
Peak $12 BillionToday
~-100%
from peak
- 🦄Became a unicorn2019
- 📈Peak valuation$12 Billion ’21
- 💔Became a UnitardNov 2024
- 💸Last valuationWiped out
🔥 Raised & burned
$14B
Total raised
$4.58M/day
Burned · 8.4y alive
Funding: Sifted/TechFundingNews
Current status
Chapter 11 (Nov 2024); Goldman wrote $896M to zero
The rise & fall
9 moments · 2016–2025The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2016
2016
Founded by ex-Tesla execs
Peter Carlsson sets out to build Europe's homegrown answer to Asia's battery giants.
Wikipedia
2019
2019
Joins the unicorn club
A ~$1B round led by Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs funds the Skellefteå gigafactory.
Reuters
2021
2021
The peak: ~$12B$12B
A $2.75B raise values Europe's battery hope around $12B as automaker orders pile up.
Financial Times
2024
2024
BMW pulls a $2B order
Ramp problems and delays cost a flagship contract; 1,600 job cuts and a scaled-back expansion follow.
Reuters
2021–24
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2021–24
Employee reviews flagged the dysfunction years early — no documented processes, timelines so aggressive corners got cut on quality. Staff recruited from abroad described moving families to housing-starved Skellefteå, some living in barracks, only to be laid off within months.
Nov 2024
Nov 2024
Chapter 11 — joins the Unitard Club 💔
Backers including Goldman Sachs (~$896M), VW and Baillie Gifford write their stakes to zero.
Financial Times
Mar 2025
Mar 2025
Bankrupt in Sweden too
With the US process stalled, Northvolt files for bankruptcy at home.
Reuters
2025
2025
Lyten picks up the pieces
The US battery startup agrees to take over Northvolt's main assets.
Reuters
$12Bof peak value erased · 8 years
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Northvolt was a Swedish EV battery manufacturer positioned as Europe's homegrown challenger to Asian cell makers, reaching a ~$12B valuation in 2021. Production ramp problems, mounting losses, and funding shortfalls overwhelmed it, and it filed for Chapter 11 in November 2024, with backers including Goldman Sachs (~$896M), VW, and Baillie Gifford writing their stakes to zero.
Source: Financial Times/Reuters
