LONDON – Daniel Ek, founder and chief executive of Sportpot, has invested in Northwolt, a Swedish battery company building a gigafactory in the Lapland region of Sweden.

Stockholm – based Stockholm – based Swiss businesswoman Christina Steinbeck has raised $ 600 million in equity funds from institutional investors Bailey Gifford, Baron Capital Group, Bridford Investment Limited, Norsken VC and PCS Holdings. Current North Vault shareholders Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division, IMSF Foundation, Scania and Volkswagen also participated in the funding round.

Tesla’s rival’s investment comes within a week Ek pledged to invest one billion euros ($ 1.2 billion) to own property in “Moonshot” bets in Europe. According to Forbes, Eck is valued at $ 3.7 billion, indicating that it is allocating about a third of its assets to fund European tech.

“I want to do my part; we all know that access to capital is the biggest challenge,” Eck said of his desire to realize a new European dream.

“I’m disappointed to see European entrepreneurs selling their amazing visions to non-European companies earlier, or to leaving because some of Europe’s best technological talent is not valued here,” Ek told the Slush Tech Conference last Thursday. “We need more super companies to raise the bar and act as inspiration.”

Founded in 2016, North Vault aims to develop the world’s greenest lithium-ion battery. The company, which founded two former Tesla executives, uses batteries to power new electric cars built by Europe’s largest automotive manufacturers.

It is in the process of building a gigafactory for making batteries in Schല്ലlfeftia, in northern Sweden, where production is expected to begin in 2021.

The company, which already employs about 800 people, will increase the number of battery cells and systems with the new funding. The money will be used to double the size of the labs and create a “giga-scale recycling facility” capable of recycling lithium in addition to cobalt, nickel, manganese and other metals.

“We are in a competition to establish productivity in Europe. I believe the best companies in attracting talent and capital will be the most successful in quickly scaling their blueprints,” said Co-Peter Carlson. In a statement, the founder and CEO of North Vault.

“With these world-class partners behind us, we have laid a solid foundation for advancing our plans to enable large-scale green battery production in Europe.”

North Vault is applying for permission to set up a second gigafactory facility in Salzgitzer, Germany, which is expected to be operational by 2024.

Last June, Northwolt raised $ 1 billion From Volkswagen and BMW.

In July, It was announced It raised $ 1.6 billion in debt through a consortium of commercial banks, pension funds and public financial institutions. One of them $ 350 million loan From the European Investment Bank, it is a publicly owned company whose shareholders are members of the European Union.

In July, BMW signed a സെ 2 billion battery cell deal with Northwall, which will see Northwall’s batteries in upcoming electric cars.