As electric vehicles and renewable energy proliferate, one of the biggest hurdles to mass adoption has been scaling battery manufacturing in a sustainable way. In 2018, we identified that Northvolt, a Stockholm, Sweden-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer, had the potential to bring a new level of sustainability to manufacturing the batteries that power electric vehicles and provide customized energy storage solutions. We believe that the company has a differentiated value proposition: a focus on delivering batteries with a significantly lower carbon footprint than those produced by others, realized through a combination of factories fully powered by hydropower and a vertically integrated production cycle that recycles many of the minerals and raw materials required by lithium-ion batteries. Over the course of a year, we conducted deep diligence on the company and team. Importantly, the company’s CEO and Sustainable Transport CASE STUDY: Northvolt 129 Sustainability Report 2021 Sustainability Issuance Report | Featured Investments COO were heavily involved in the construction of Tesla’s first “Gigafactory” in the US, bringing critical experience to bear and providing a clear vision for company development. In 2019, we teamed with Volkswagen to lead a $1 billion Series D financing round. As Northvolt executed on its strategy, we helped the company raise $1.6 billion of non-recourse, first- and second-lien debt in 2020 — the first such financing for a battery manufacturer. In 2021, we again partnered with Volkswagen, along with other investors, to invest an additional $2.75 billion of equity — the largest private capital raise in Europe’s history — to help fuel the company’s global expansion and increase capacity at its factory in the far north of Sweden. Thanks to our close relationship with Northvolt, we were able to help the company navigate multiple complex financing transactions at key points in its development.