Battery startup Pure Lithium will relocate from Boston to Chicago and invest $46 million to expand in the city’s growing tech hub, the company announced on Thursday.
The maker of lithium metal batteries will launch in Fulton Market this fall and create at least 50 new jobs. As part of its Chicago move, Pure Lithium plans to eventually produce batteries used for consumer electronics, electric vehicles, drones, grid-scale energy storage and defense technology.
“I am excited to welcome the team at Pure Lithium to our state, where they’ll be an excellent addition to the business landscape and burgeoning clean energy ecosystem,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a news release. “Their investment will not only create jobs and economic opportunity for our people but help power the green revolution right here in Illinois.”
Founded in 2020, Pure Lithium will have a corporate office and “prototyping facility” in Fulton Market and will eventually build a manufacturing facility in Illinois.
Pure Lithium’s batteries will be made in North America with locally sourced materials and eliminate dependence on China, according to the company.
It was lured to Chicago by tax incentives from the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles in Illinois program through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which seeks to bring manufacturers related to electric vehicles and renewable energy to Illinois.
The move also brings Pure Lithium closer to Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, near Chicago. Pure Lithium and Argonne are collaborating on a project to grow lithium metal anode production using recycled lithium metal with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Pure Lithium’s relocation to Chicago “is a decisive step in the company’s transition from pure R&D to scaling up for commercial production,” Pure Lithium founder and CEO Emilie Bodoin said in a news release.
“This move allows us to construct a semi-automated battery pilot line vertically integrating our lithium metal reactor, and the incentives assist in funding critical pilot equipment, accelerating our timeline to market.”
The West Loop is fast becoming a tech hub. Early last year, NanoGraf, maker of advanced lithium-ion batteries for the U.S. military, announced plans to open a manufacturing and research facility. MHub, the nonprofit high-tech incubator, also opened a new space in the West Loop in December 2023.
