The money ran out – the crown jewel of the Norwegian battery industry fell into bankruptcy

Norwegian Morrow Batteries joins the infamously long list of bankrupt European battery companies. The bankruptcy filing in May marks a serious setback for the Norwegian battery business, Batterytechonline website tells.

Morrow and its subsidiaries were considered the cornerstone of Norwegian battery production. But the bankruptcy also shakes the European battery project more widely, which aims to break away from its dependence on raw materials and build independent battery production for the continent’s needs.

To top it all off, Morrow Batteries was already negotiating major order deals just weeks before its eventual collapse.

However, the company’s board of directors said that they had failed in negotiations with potential investors regarding further financing. Additional funding would have been badly needed to secure the company’s dwindling cash flow.

Hardly anyone can blame the company for a lack of entrepreneurship. Financial realities proved to be too heavy a burden in the end for a business that required massive seed funding.

In the end, the debts of the bankruptcy estate were estimated at almost 500 million euros. The sad end reflects the ruthless nature of the industry.

Advanced battery technology

There were promising things to attract investors. Morrow was able to offer a unique business model based on its own battery technology innovations.

In May 2024, the company announced that it had developed a battery that extended its life cycle by a third and increased the energy density by ten percent compared to the average LFP battery.

In addition, Morrow has developed the next generation nickel manganese lithium oxide battery. Two different versions were developed: one for the needs of heavy commercial vehicles and the other for less impact on the environment.

No ethically questionable cobalt was used in the batteries at all, which has been replaced by other minerals. 70 people from 25 different countries worked in the company’s research laboratories.

Destiny’s cellular tsunami

Despite everything, the bankruptcy fixed yet another promising company that had thrown itself into the battery business out of the game. In 2025–2026, Morrow followed the sunken Natron Energy- and Ascend Elements company.

Everyone is united by the same fate. Brutal market forces seem to prevent the growth of promising start-ups into established players.

In just a few years, the shortage that has plagued the industry has turned into an oversupply. In particular, the Chinese battery giants, who enjoy massive state subsidies, have flooded the market with a flood of cheap battery cells.

At the same time, prices have fallen heavily below the profitability limit of the start-up battery companies. The Kennotsunami has led to price wars that start-ups simply don’t have the guts to engage in.

“The changes in the battery market and the enormous importance of initial capital made our operations much more difficult than we had anticipated,” Morrow stated in his press release.

Investors beware

Battery production eats up huge piles of money before turning into a profitable business. The need for capital leads to a vicious circle.

Start-ups must increase production capacity in order to attract regular customers – while increasing capacity requires solid customer relationships from the perspective of investors.

In addition, the investment climate has changed dramatically since Morrow started its operations in 2020. The strong rise in interest rates has made debt-driven growth even more expensive.

Risk investors who have invested in start-up companies in the field have become more cautious. So Morrow was left at the crossroads known as the “valley of death”. The debt-to-income ratio was in the red for too long.