Sila Nanotechnologies Stock: IPO Material?

Explore opportunities to acquire Sila stock as the IPO approaches. Get access to pre-IPO startups like OpenAI, Databricks, and Anduril  via the Fundrise Innovation Fund*. 

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Recent Sila News

09/24/2024: Sila Nanotechnologies Takes $1 Billion Valuation Haircut 
09/19/2024: New battery designs could lead to gains in power and capacity
06/27/2024: Sila Raises $375M
12/11/2023: Panasonic’s to boost US supply chain with Sila Nano deal
Older news…

About Sila

Sila Nanotechnologies is an advanced battery designer and manufacturer on a mission to engineer materials to power our future. 

Lithium-ion batteries have existed since the early 1990s and power our valued electronics and electric vehicles. However, there’s been limited innovation. 

Gene Berdichevsky, Tesla’s seventh employee, became frustrated with the lack of battery innovation and set out to make the lithium-ion battery more powerful and efficient. 

He founded Sila Technologies in 2011. 

Instead of starting from scratch, Sila discovered a way to make lithium-ion batteries more efficient by replacing the standard graphite anode with a nano-engineered silicone one. The new materials have the potential to make batteries 50% better, increasing power density and decreasing their size. 

The new batteries can also lower costs and improve driving mileage for electric vehicles. 

The company currently partners with WHOOP to provide batteries for its performance watches. Sila is building a factory in Moses Lake, Washington State, to build enough anode material to support the production of up to 500,000 vehicles per year. 

Sila has partnered with leading automotive manufacturers to enable the adoption of its technology, lowering costs and improving charge time and mileage capabilities. 

The company is based in Alameda, CA. 

Here’s a video highlighting its Moses Lake Factory.

Ownership

Sila is a venture-backed startup. It has raised more than $880 million in private funding.

Investors include employees, founders, and venture capital firms. 

The latest funding round was a Series G completed in June 2024 and led by Sutter Hill Ventures and T.Rowe Price. The deal secured $375 million to build Titan Silicon for its auto series production.

Other prominent venture capital investors include Coatue, 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Sutter Hill Ventures, Daimler, Chengwei Capital, Matrix Partners, and Siemens Next47. 

Funding Rounds

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Valuation

The Series G funding round completed in June 2024 modified the Sila valuation to about $1.3 billion. This is preliminary based on available information shortly after the Series G. 

Private market transaction data provided by Hiive suggested the early 2024 valuation was below $3 billion. 

The valuation peaked at around $3.3 billion in January 2021. 

We expect a fresh private funding round or IPO filing in the coming months. 

IPO Potential

Sila has not yet filed for an IPO. Though it will likely pursue an IPO in the coming years, the company appears to be focusing on building its first large manufacturing facility and delivering products to power the electric future. 

As a venture-backed startup already completing six funding rounds, there will be rising pressure on the company to go public. 

We won’t be able to estimate the Sila IPO date until the company files an S-1 with the SEC and it is released to the public. We can expect the IPO to be about two months away when that happens. 

We may hear news about the company taking steps to move forward with an IPO, such as hiring an investment banking firm or “exploring options to go public.”

Please bookmark this page for the latest news regarding the Sila IPO date. 

How to Invest in Sila Stock

Since Sila is not a public company yet, there are limited options to buy the stock. As the company matures and approaches its IPO date, the opportunity to invest will become more widespread to retail investors. 

Accredited investors may find opportunities to invest in Sila stock pre-IPO. Everyone else will need to wait until the IPO or after the IPO completes. 

1. Access Sila stock pre-IPO

The author has seen evidence of recent pre-IPO access to Sila shares on pre-IPO platforms. 

A handful of pre-IPO investing platforms have emerged over the past decade to bring liquidity to startup shareowners. Pre-IPO platforms include Hiive, EquityZen, and Forge Global.

Investors must be accredited to be eligible to directly own pre-IPO shares. Accredited means having a net worth above $1 million (not including primary residence) or an income above $200,000 (or $300,000 with a spouse).

Investors must also be registered and approved on pre-IPO investing platforms to receive notifications when shares become available. 

Company availability varies among pre-IPO platforms. Typically, companies with a higher valuation and wide dispersion of pre-IPO equity have more opportunities to invest. 

The most accessible venture capital funds for non-accredited investors is the Fundrise Innovation Fund. This fund enable investors to own pre-IPO companies without the accreditation hurdle. 

However, it does not own Sila at this time. 

Shares may become available when employees or other early investors want to liquidate a portion of their shares without waiting for the IPO. 

Bigger funding rounds and IPO delays also increase the chances of shares becoming available pre-IPO. 

If shares become available, expect at least a $10,000 investment minimum. 

2. Participate in the Sila IPO through a broker

Savvy IPO investors may find opportunities to invest during the IPO. That means acquiring shares at the IPO price the night before the company begins trading.

Once reserved for Wall Street’s wealthiest customers, IPO access has become more attainable to retail investors in the past five years. 

Online brokers such as the following give customers free access to IPOs, even with low account balances. 

• TradeStation 
• Robinhood

Brokers often negotiate exclusive IPO share allocations to retail investors. Your access to specific high-demand IPOs may be limited by how many brokerage accounts you have. 

TradeStation has a longer track record of accessing more than 200 IPOs and secondary offerings via its partnership with ClickIPO. 

Robinhood has the advantage of Silicon Valley networks and a history of getting allocations for high-profile IPOs (e.g., Sweetgreen, Rivian).

Check out this list of best brokers for IPO investing to learn more about IPO access for retail investors.

3. Buy Sila stock after the IPO

Though waiting for the IPO requires patience, there are advantages to waiting for the stock to become publicly traded before owning. 

First of all, the IPO allows investors to review financials. Pre-IPO investing has limited financials available. 

Second, IPO stock prices typically rise with high-demand companies. You can benefit if you’re in early and sell when the price overheats.

Many IPOs start off with high valuations but then simmer down when the stock falls after the first and second-quarter earnings reports become available.

In 2021, both Rivian and Robinhood became high-flying IPO stocks. But six months after the IPO, both stocks were more than 80% below their price peak. 

The stock price declines after the IPOs could become excellent entry points if you were not allocated IPO shares. 

Avoid buying overvalued shares immediately after the IPO. Shares often fall after the IPO due to lockup expirations and quarterly earnings disappointments. 

However, the most disruptive companies will be higher in a decade. Patience pays. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Sila publicly traded?

No. Sila is not publicly traded. It is private. 

What is the Sila stock price?

There is no public Sila stock price yet. The company is still private. 

The June 2024 Series G funding round completed at $16.42 per share.

What is the Sila stock symbol?

There is no Sila stock symbol yet because the company has not filed for an IPO yet. 

Once the company files an S-1 with the SEC to go public, it will disclose its intended stock ticker. 

Until then, we can only speculate. Here are a few potential Sila stock symbols that appear to be available in the U.S. 

• SILA
• SN

When did Sila change its name from Sila Nanotechnologies?

Sila was known as Sila Nanotechnologies from its founding in 2011 to early 2024. In the first half of 2024, the company started referring to itself as just Sila in press releases. Though no press release announced the name change. 

The change was likely to help shorten the spoken name, as “nanotechnologies” is six syllables. 

Sila does not own the URL Sila.com, which is maintained by a regional plumbing company. Instead, it uses SilaNano.com

Where can I find the Sila IPO S-1 Filing?

Sila has not yet submitted an S-1 filing to the SEC. When the company does, we’ll share it here. 

In the meantime, you can check out the most recent S-1 filings in our S-1 filings feed. 

Sila News Archive

04/10/2023: Sila Introduces Titan Silicon™
10/30/2022: Silicon EV battery tech gets $250 million in DOE grants
07/16/2022: The New Batteries That Will Make You an EV Believer
05/25/2022: Sila Nano is #34 on CNBC’s 2022 Disruptor List
05/17/2022: Mercedes-Benz and Sila achieve breakthrough 
05/03/2022: Sila to make advanced battery materials in Washington state
09/08/2021: Your Batteries Are Due for Disruption
01/26/2021: Sila Nanotechnologies raises $590M to fund battery materials factory
01/10/2021: This company is reinventing the lithium-ion battery
11/04/2019: Battery tech startup Sila Nano lands $45 million and Tesla veteran
04/16/2019: Daimler Leads $170M Financing in Sila Nanotechnologies

Conclusion

Investors get excited when they identify companies riding extraordinary macroeconomic trends, such as batteries and material science. This can lead us to private companies positioning to profit from massive opportunities. 

However, buying the stock early on can often prove difficult for retail investors. 

Though pre-IPO investing platforms have opened more opportunities, private equity investing is still primarily reserved for the ultra-wealthy, requiring millions to invest in seed and early funding rounds for disruptive companies. 

So if you decide to pursue IPO shares and early equity, maintain reasonable expectations. However, if you identify several favorite IPO companies, you may eventually be able to invest in some of your target companies.

If Sila stock is on your watch list, good luck. Invest in pre-IPO and IPO companies with caution.

Read more: Green Startups in the IPO Pipeline

The author is long TROW, RIVN.