Raj Dasgupta, chief executive officer of Electrovaya, is pictured.

Raj DasGupta, Electrovaya chief executive officer, says these are exciting times for Electrovaya — and the Jamestown area is in the middle of the excitement.

First quarter revenues increased 522% in 2023 compared to the same time in 2022. And company officials are eyeing significant progress on their proposed Gigafactory in the town of Ellicott. If the $75 million project comes to fruition, Electrovaya plans to employ 250 people producing lithium-ion batteries for its e-forklifts, e-trucks, e-robots, e-buses and more in the former Acu-Rite location at 1 Precision Way, Ellicott. The sale of the property was reported recently in The Post-Journal as $5 million, with the building by Sustainable Energy Jamestown LLC of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It was sold by Heidenhain Corp., a foreign business corporation authorized to conduct business in New York state, as successor by merger of Acu-Rite Companies, Inc. and Acu-Rite Incorporated.

“Our largest near-term investment is our planned Gigafactory near Jamestown, New York,” DasGupta said in the conference call. “This facility is expected to augment our current supply and will also represent are turn to vertical integration for Electrovaya’s cell assembly, which utilizes a unique approach and technology. The Gigafactory will also enable Electrovaya to take advantage of growing incentives for domestic manufacturing, including new policies with the Inflation Reduction Act.”

According to documents filed as part of Electrovaya’s financial statements, Empire State Development is assisting the project by providing up to $4 million of tax credits through the performance-based Excelsior Jobs Program and $2.5 million of funding through the Regional Economic Development Council Capital Fund Program. Electrovaya is also eligible for other New York State funds, as well as U.S. federal funding from various agencies and programs.

Electrovaya also completed a private placement with existing institutional investors, new institutional investors and insiders to raise $14.8 million in Canadian dollars. A private placement of shares involves the purchase and sale of securities, like an initial public offering (IPO) but does not have the strict rules and regulations related to stock transactions because the call is not issued in the open market for the public. Electrovaya, according to its filing Monday, intends to use proceeds from the private placement of stock for several purposes, including start-up costs for the Ellicott Gigafactory. John Gibson, Electrovaya chief financial officer, said government grants and debt will pay between 75% and 85% of the first $45 million of the Gigafactory’s startup costs.

“As we have mentioned previously, it is our intention that the majority of the funding for the initial phase of the project will be from non-dilutive means, including grants and debt,” RasGupta said. “The company is in late-stage negotiations with two U.S.-based government-owned lending institutions to finance a significant portion of the first phase of the Gigafactory. We recently received a term sheet from one of the lenders, which we are in the process of negotiating. Despite progress and our optimism, there is no guarantee that either institution will provide funding for the project.”

While work continues securing financing to build the Ellicott factory, Electrovaya officials see continued growth for the rest of 2023. The company continues to anticipate revenue of approximately $42 million in 2023, more than double the revenue total in 2022. But, while revenues are increasing, so are the company’s losses as it scales up its ability to manufacture product. Net losses grew by $1.549 million (72%) from $2.155 million to $3.704 million over the past three months.

On December 31, 2022, Electrovaya had total cash on hand and availability in its revolving facility of $2.2 million. Company officials said Electrovaya’s available liquidity, plus $7.5 million of accounts receivable and $5.8 million of inventory, will provide adequate working capital to support its operating activities and growth targets for 2023.

“We expect that (second quarter) fiscal 2023, the current quarter, and the remainder of the fiscal year will prove to be instrumental in our goal to achieve profitability while maintaining our growth trajectory,” RasGupta said. “Furthermore, we are confident that our goals with respect to obtaining finance for our Gigafactory, key milestones associated with solid-state batteries and new EM agreements are all attainable in the near term. These are very exciting and busy times at Electrovaya.”