South 8 Technologies just secured an $11M follow-on round, and the timing feels like the universe finally syncing to their frequency. LiGas has been the quiet storm building since the UC San Diego lab days, where Co-founder and CEO Jungwoo Lee, PhD, and Co-founder and CSO Cyrus Rustomji, PhD, took liquefied gaselectrolytes from academic theory to a field-tested advantage that laughs at minus 60°C. Now that same tech is scaling inside their San Diego facility to meet multi-year demand from defense and aerospace programs that cannot afford another battery shrugging the moment the temperature dips.
The round brings in W. L. Gore & Associates Ventures and Lockheed Martin Ventures as co-leads, backed by Anzu Partners, IQT, LG Technology Ventures, Porsche Ventures, Foothill Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and strategic partner Galvion. When investors built on precision engineering, national security, and aerospace resilience put skin in the same game, you pay attention. South 8 has already shipped thousands of LiGas-based 18650 cells, showing 96% energy retention at minus 20°C and 87% at minus 40°C, while standard LNMO electrolyte barely clears 5%. That is not an incremental improvement. That is physics deciding to switch sides.
What makes this raise compelling is how disciplined the company has been in turning IP into infrastructure. A portfolio of 42 patents across 14 countries is impressive, but pairing that with compatibility across graphite, NMC, silicon-anode chemistries and a domestic gas supply chain is what turns a breakthrough into a business. Investors do not back dreams. They back proof. South 8 has stacked validation from U.S. Army ballistic testing, thermal fuse abuse trials, and a $6.4M NanoGraf subcontract, all while delivering real cells to real integrators with real deadlines.
The partnerships paint an even sharper picture. NASA, LG Energy Solution, and KULR want LiGas for space missions demanding operation at minus 60°C. Galvion and CTNS are building LiGas into soldier power and aerospace systems where traditional lithium cells act more like decorative paperweights. The company is shaping a market where performance is not a pitch but a prerequisite.
If you build drones, satellites, soldier systems, or industrial hardware that has to work when the environment works against you, South 8 is not just a name to watch. It is a signal that the battery world is shifting under your feet, one liquefied molecule at a time.
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