Bold Valuable Tech, specialized in the design of batteries for electric competition cars, is building a factory in Montmeló to design and produce, with its own high-performance technology, electric batteries for hybrid aircraft, high-performance cars, and motorsport.
The facilities are expected to be operational after the summer and represent an investment of 2.3 million euros obtained through a financing round led by David Vilanova, a member of the industrial machinery production company Tavil, and Josep Maria Tarragó, a partner at Lacus, a former shareholder of Ficosa and an early-stage investor in companies such as Wallbox, as reported by Acció.
The launch of the factory has led to the creation of 40 highly qualified jobs, mostly engineers and factory operators, ---with an R&D center with 35 engineers--- and will require the hiring of 100 more engineers by the end of 2023 ---40 of whom will join this year---. The first orders will be delivered in November and they have secured orders until the end of 2023, when batteries equivalent to more than 60 MWh of power will have been produced.
Founded three years ago in Girona, the company has experienced exponential expansion thanks to its founder, Bernat Carreras, a 37-year-old mechanical engineer. Carreras has been part of Formula 1 technical teams for teams such as McLaren, Renault-Alpine, and Honda –where he took on the design of the battery for the hybrid system of the vehicles "and realized the potential of electrification," says this entrepreneur---.
With the new manufacturing line, the company expects to reach a turnover of 6.5 million euros by the end of this year, with a company that "has not stopped making money," said Carreras during the presentation of the new project in Montmeló. "At the end of 2020, we were 8 engineers with a portfolio of projects to develop" and now "we are already 50 people and, strategically, we have focused on high-performance electrification, in the niche of automotive, aviation, motorsport, and the maritime sector."
Bernat Carreras, who is inspired by "companies like Wallbox", wants to continue growing in Catalonia "because from here we can reach as far as we set our minds to", he stated. Carreras pointed out that "in Vallès there is a lot of proximity to Barcelona and, therefore, to universities and engineers, while we are very close to the automotive industry and the Circuit de Catalunya, which has a very powerful international brand". This does not mean that, in its growth strategy, the company plans to open offices in the United Kingdom and the United States soon.
For his part, Bold's chief operating officer, Gerard Torres, explained that the proprietary technology they have developed so far mainly for Formula 1 companies can be used for any other high-performance application, such as airplanes. "We start with light aircraft such as recreational planes and short-distance planes for domestic or regional flights, but it is the same technology that larger planes will use", he explains. In fact, according to Torres, "planes will first be hybrid and then electric, and this will happen this very decade".