A bid to boost battery power hits market after decade of trying

Next-generation battery company Sila Nanotechnologies Inc. finally has a product that consumers can take home — after 10 years of trying.

Sila’s technology now helps power a health and fitness-tracking wearable device from Whoop Inc., the companies announced Wednesday. It marks the first time since Sila’s founding in 2011 that the firm’s technology has been included in a mass-produced device.

Sila is one of a spate of upstart companies trying to substantially improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from phones to cars. Sila doesn’t make the batteries themselves — instead, it makes a silicon anode material to be incorporated into the battery cells, boosting the amount of energy they can store. Gene Berdichevsky, Sila’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, said using Sila’s technology enabled Whoop to shrink the size of its fitness tracker by a third without sacrificing performance.