Vienna’s SALZSTROM raises over $1M pre-seed to for lithium replacement

Austrian cleantech company SALZSTROM has secured over $1 million in a pre-seed round to advance its work on sodium-ion battery technology, positioning itself as a European alternative to lithium-ion energy storage.

The round includes backing from Erste Bank and other partners, and SALZSTROM will consolidate its R&D activities into a new entity named FlexCo.

The investment comes as the energy transition intensifies demand for safer, more sustainable, and geopolitically independent alternatives to lithium, cobalt, and nickel - all critical materials that dominate today’s battery supply chains. While sodium-ion technology is still an emerging solution, its potential to offer long life cycles and high thermal resilience without reliance on rare or hazardous materials has drawn increasing attention from both investors and industry stakeholders.

Founded in Vienna, SALZSTROM has already brought its CE-certified sodium-ion battery modules to market. The company’s longer-term vision is to help Europe reduce its dependency on supply chains concentrated in China and other regions with limited access to raw materials by leveraging sodium, a far more abundant and evenly distributed element.

“We are convinced that the time is right for a safe, environmentally friendly, and fair alternative to lithium-ion batteries,” said Stefan Nolte, CFO and co-founder of SALZSTROM. “This funding is a very strong signal and an essential milestone on our journey. We thank all our financing partners – especially ERSTE BANK – for their professional and committed support during this critical phase of building our company.”

The firm’s strategy now involves creating FlexCo, a dedicated R&D unit to accelerate core technological breakthroughs while maintaining a commercial focus through SALZSTROM. By decoupling engineering development from market-facing operations, the startup aims to streamline innovation while staying close to customer needs.

SALZSTROM’s raise comes amid a wave of global investment into next-generation battery chemistries, including solid-state, flow, and sodium-based systems. In Europe, where regulatory momentum and geopolitical priorities favour domestic production and supply chain sovereignty, battery tech startups are seeing a renewed push.