Boston-area startup Alsym Energy has raised $78 million in new funding to increase headcount and ramp up prototyping of its non-flammable rechargeable battery technology.

The Series B round was led by Indian conglomerate Tata Limited and venture capital General Catalyst, with additional investment from Thrive Capital, Thomvest, and prior backer Drads Capital.

The company claims its metal oxide batteries are made without lithium or cobalt. They can be used for any discharge duration between four and 110 hours and recharge in as few as four hours.

The funding will also allow Alsym to expand the pilot production lines of its first commercial battery product, Alsym Green. The battery is designed for grid-scale energy storage and offers better energy density than other non-flammable chemistries while operating safely at high temperatures.

Battery energy storage systems help stabilize the grid by storing renewable energy, which is intermittent, for later use. Power developers and project owners could add utility-scale battery storage capacity of up to 30 GW in the U.S. by 2025. The surge in variable solar and wind capacity in states like California and Texas is driving the growth of battery storage capacity.

“As the clean energy transition accelerates, it’s becoming more apparent that a single battery technology is not ideal for every use case,” said Mukesh Chatter, Alsym’s CEO and co-founder. “This funding represents a vote of confidence in our approach to developing new, non-flammable battery chemistries that combine high performance and low cost with a high level of safety.”

In addition to grid storage products, Alsym plans future battery offerings for marine shipping, electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and passenger vehicles.

“Alsym batteries are ideally suited to both temperate and warming climates, as well as infrastructure and industrial applications including data centers, steel mills, and chemical plants,” said Kripa Varanasi, Co-Founder and professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Global venture capital funding in the energy storage sector reached a record $9.2 billion in 2023, up 59% from last year. The numbers were revealed in Mercom Capital Group’s Annual and Q4 2023 Funding and M&A Report for Storage & Grid.