On the occasion of NOVUM’s 10th anniversary, we take a look back over the past few years. From the initial ideas to current developments and the goals that NOVUM has set itself for the future, Mandy Schipke, CEO of NOVUM engineering GmbH and part of the three-person founding team, gives an exciting insight in an interview. Under the motto “The sense of great challenges is that the joy is also great once you have overcome them”, she is constantly managing and developing NOVUM so that the company is well equipped for the coming years.
Would you have thought 10 years ago that NOVUM would have developed so successfully to this day?
Ten years ago, my co-founders Jens, Sören and I had little more than the vision of living in a world that is sustainable and also offers the next generation a beautiful future. Even back then, the progress of the energy transition was not going fast enough for us. There was non-stop discussion, but nothing happened. We wanted to change that — preferably in such a way that we didn’t need any political regulations or other “brake blocks”.
Today, with our AI-based rapid tests, we ensure that batteries are given a second or even third life before they are recycled and protect them from dangerous situations with our Storage Guard in vehicles, home storage systems and large storage systems. This has already saved many lives and created numerous business opportunities in the field of battery technology.
Of course, we set out 10 years ago with the aim of achieving exactly that. But I never expected that we would actually leave a very green ecological footprint today and be the global technology leader. Of course, I am all the more pleased about this.
What are you particularly proud of?
The team! Without the people who put their heart and soul into their work here every day, who go the extra mile when necessary, who are there for others when they are needed and who fight together for a sustainable future, we would be nowhere near where we are today. We are the only AI company in the battery sector that has been operating profitably for three years, although it was always predicted that this would not be possible in the foreseeable future. But it is possible! Just like hundreds of other impossibilities that the NOVUM team overcomes every day. It doesn’t work without fun, and I’m very proud of that too. Not a day goes by without us laughing together. We cook together, plant trees every spring and cycle for the climate. I really like that. I always wanted to work in an environment where I felt I was doing something meaningful and where I liked my colleagues. I have achieved that at NOVUM.
What was the biggest challenge for NOVUM and how was it solved?
The biggest challenge was that we were in the right place at the wrong time. Today, everyone knows how important it is to use the valuable resource “battery” as safely, efficiently and for as long as possible. But in 2014, the world was still grappling with the fundamental questions surrounding battery technology: Are batteries in cars really an alternative to combustion engines? Which battery chemistry is best suited? Where can electric cars even be charged? Nobody had yet thought about how batteries could be used longer and more safely with the help of AI. Our customers first had to experience for themselves how dangerous it can be if a battery suddenly starts to burn, how unpleasant it is if a vehicle does not reach a certain range, or how expensive it can be to constantly buy new batteries instead of reusing used ones.
So we had to hold out for quite a long time until the breakthrough came. This was not always easy for a highly motivated team that finally wanted to put its horsepower on the road, but also for our investors. Today, I am actually very grateful for this long dry spell, because it gave us the opportunity to constantly develop our technology further and to grow into their problems together with our customers. As a result, we were finally able to offer the right products at the right time and now hold 26 international patents.
What is particularly important to NOVUM and what can customers rely on?
Substance. In the current AI hype, to be honest, this often comes up a little short for me. Artificial intelligence is not an end in itself and certainly not a panacea for everything — not even when it comes to batteries. It is very important to be able to assess how good the results delivered by artificial intelligence are at all times. This is one of the developments at NOVUM that is very important for our customers. When our AI determines a battery condition, there is always at least one control AI that indicates how trustworthy the result is. Of course, in the final instance, we also have people who constantly carry out plausibility checks. We never advertise this publicly because it is simply a matter of course for us — just like all the other subtleties that ultimately make really good solutions.
It is also important to me that all our products are easy to use and operate. It is therefore very easy for storage owners to benefit from the advantages of NOVUM-KI. If the safety of battery storage systems is to be permanently monitored, for example, we don’t even have to be on site. All we need is the data that the battery produces anyway. We retrieve this at regular intervals via a cloud connection and calculate how the battery is doing, how long it will last or how to use it so that it lasts as long as possible. Our customers can then call up this information in a clear dashboard and, of course, process it themselves if they wish. Data security is also not a problem. We meet the highest security standards and our servers are located exclusively at certified sites in Germany. Our quick battery tests work just as easily. Not only can they determine the battery status in a matter of seconds, they are constantly learning. Our customers therefore have maximum freedom and can use the NOVUM Battery Analyzer flexibly for different battery types — whether in production, reconditioning or for second-life cases.
What is NOVUM’s vision for the future?
The future of NOVUM will definitely be exciting. We will definitely break the 10 GW mark for monitored batteries. We have already saved over 120,000 tons of battery scrap by giving these batteries a second life. That is enough to supply the whole of Germany with renewable electricity at any time of day or night for the next 10 years. This is the first step towards the energy transition, but of course it is not enough. We will therefore continue to work on ensuring that every battery not only has a first life , but at least a second and ideally even a third . The more successful we are in this, the better for the environment and our customers, because used batteries can actually save a lot of money.
