articles

“More start-up companies die from indigestion than starvation”

Alexei Andreev of Autotech Ventures speaks about his financial backing of Gaussion, a fast-growing battery technology firm supported by Connected Places Catapult that has recently raised over £9 million in investment.

January 5, 2026

Silicon Valley has a popular proverb that highlights the need for entrepreneurs to focus on one opportunity – rather than hunting several. “More start-up companies die from indigestion than starvation,” remarks investor Alexei Andreev.

“You cannot chase three different product lines, or five different applications for your foundational technology,” he adds. “The moment you are on to something, you need to drop everything else and go all in; you cannot afford to diversify. Life is too short.”

Alexei is the Managing Director of US-based Autotech Ventures, an early and growth-stage venture capital firm focused on mobility technology, and part of an investment syndicate that recently backed the UK battery specialist Gaussion to the tune of £9.4m.

“Our goal is to identify future leaders of ground transportation, and provide capital to help them scale and build something of significant value,” he says. “We're chasing the best, brightest entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world and have a profound impact on how goods and humans move.”

Gaussion designs magnetic systems to improve battery performance to significantly reduce charging times and increase the lifespan of batteries used in automotive applications. The investment helped the firm to expand its London-based operations, with the aim of creating one of the largest battery manufacturing facilities in the country.

“Many batteries don't charge quickly enough, don't last long enough, are too sensitive to cold temperatures, or are too expensive,” explains the tech firm’s Chief Executive, Tom Heenan (pictured at the top of the piece). “The problem is often around battery resistance, which can be overcome with magnets. We've tested our system on batteries which are 10 years old, and achieved performances that exceed those of new batteries. Our ultimate selling point is in shrinking those magnets in size, and doing so at scale in a profitable manner.

“By the time we were looking for investment, we'd validated the technology in the laboratory and scaled it to a point we knew we could enter the market effectively,” Tom adds. “We wanted to open those commercial avenues, start building pipelines and move to a new site so we could build bigger things.

“There's quite a few people we could have taken funds from, but our investors have the networks and understand how the market operates, so the deal was an obvious fit.”

Tom Heenan, Chief Executive, Gaussion

Benefitting from two Catapult programmes

Gaussion started working with Connected Places Catapult on the Clean Futures accelerator in 2023 to develop its magnetic lithium-ion battery technology MagLiB. It continued on to the Freight Innovation Fund to help it produce a bespoke battery system for electric vehicles the following year.

Tom says the Catapult helped his company to understand “what was technically feasible in terms of market entry points” and provided advice on how to pitch the solution to customers. “We had some good business coaching too, with a deep dive into market entry points.”

He adds that the Clean Futures programme brought Gaussion together with Coventry University to allow them to safely work on commercial vehicle batteries, and its participation in the Freight Innovation Fund helped it to scale the technology to a full vehicle pack while better understanding manufacturing processes.

Alexei says accelerator programmes such as Clean Futures and the Freight Innovation Fund are very important for founders who come up with new ideas but who may otherwise struggle to realise commercial potential, what customers are looking for, how to fundraise, and strategies for recruiting and retaining the right people.

“It's very important to find intermediaries like Connected Places Catapult who can match big brains with brilliant ideas.

Alexei Andreev, Managing Director, Autotech Ventures

Disrupting the battery market

Alexei has been a venture capitalist for over 20 years and has invested in several energy storage and generation technologies that involve different coatings or packaging solutions to overcome battery limitations.

“People have tried everything, and some looked good for a while,” he observes. “The real challenge isn’t inventing the technology, it’s scaling it. You need massive factories, disciplined cost structures, and a price point the market can absorb. Many technologies look compelling in a lab, but cannot survive contact with industrial scale.

And you are not shooting at a stationary target: large companies are constantly improving their batteries by 5-7% annually. A 20% advantage on day one evaporates quickly unless your innovation is truly disruptive. That’s the bar.”

Over the last two decades of investing in energy systems, he says he “hasn't seen anything close” to what Gaussian is doing. “If the technology works as advertised, we're dealing with a complete disruption in the battery domain, which is globally applicable, and could be used everywhere from vacuum cleaners and electric power tools, to vehicles.”

Alexei adds that it is important for investors and SMEs to recognise the importance of working closely together, so “if we win, we win together; and if we lose, we lose together”.

Tom advises other scale-up firms chasing investment to “calculate how much you need based on what you want to achieve – and then prioritise who delivers it. There are a lot of venture capital firms out there, and you shouldn’t take an offer from the first person you speak to. It is definitely worth doing some due diligence on who wants to invest in your firm.”

His aim for the company long-term is to design and build longer-lasting batteries at scale from its central London facility, and then to deploy them globally.

Alexei notes that SMEs have to be disciplined about when and how they raise capital. “In the end, every failed company fails for the same reason, they run out of money,” he says. "The only way to avoid that outcome is to control burn, extend the runway, and give yourself enough time to execute.”

Find out more about our service for Investors. Read about other investor stories in this series