This week we had the pleasure to host Michael Burz, CEO & Co-founder of Enzinc, a leading advanced battery technology company.

Mike Burz is an aerospace engineer who has worked at General Dynamics on the Tomahawk cruise missile and as the designer of the Stealth cruise missile system and subsequently at Nissan’s advanced design group and led their race car design program for Le Mans. Mike is an impressive systems-level thinker, experienced battery professional, and leader who has worked in partnership with the US Naval Research Laboratory to develop a revolutionary energy storage system that is giving lithium a run for the money while boosting efficiencies and returns for most of the other legacy and traditional battery manufacturers in the world.

Enzinc is not just another battery manufacturer, but it is an advanced battery technology company. Their drop-in anode enables customers to create batteries with the power of lithium at the cost of lead-acid with no fire potential and a wide temperature operating range. “Enzinc Inside”, just like Intel. Their secret sauce is a Zinc anode made in the form of a 3-dimensional sponge which makes their batteries superior to traditional batteries. Enzinc’s zinc-based anode enables sustainable and recyclable batteries which are designed and developed at their engineering labs at the Richmond Field Station at UC Berkeley and have won numerous awards including:

• • CEC CalTestBed Award
  • CEC CalSEED Concept & Prototype Award
  • Winner of the Global Cleantech Open People’s Choice Award
  • Winner of the US DOE ARPAe Award

What makes Enzinc a major potential game-changer in advanced energy storage is their go-to-market strategy which resembles the “Intel Inside” approach. They are not looking to scale their own manufacturing operations, instead, they are licensing their unique zinc-based battery design and manufacturing process and selling the zinc sponge anodes to existing legacy and traditional battery manufacturers to develop superior batteries with “Enzinc Inside”. This business approach enables existing battery manufacturers to leverage 75% of their existing Cap-Ex and their staff to manufacture a superior product.

Below is our interview with Michael Burz: