- March 6, 2026
- Breakthru , NBIF News
- Comments : 0
Solving a 100-Year-Old Problem in EV Batteries
Most people don’t think about graphite when they think about electric vehicles.
But for Lance Keddy, Co-Founder of Hexoris, it’s the place where one of the biggest opportunities in energy innovation is hiding.
Electric vehicle batteries rely heavily on synthetic graphite, a material that plays a critical role in how batteries store and deliver energy. The problem? The process used to manufacture it hasn’t fundamentally changed in more than a century, and it consumes enormous amounts of energy.
That gap is exactly what Hexoris is working to close.
“The energy bill is massive, and nobody has fixed it yet,” says Lance.
For a while, the team focused on validating whether the problem was truly as big as it seemed. The turning point came when a Tier-1 EV battery manufacturer confirmed what they suspected.
“When a Tier-1 EV battery manufacturer confirmed the problem was real and nobody had solved it yet, we stopped asking if there was a market and started building the company,” Lance explains.
Hexoris is developing a new type of reactor designed to dramatically improve how synthetic graphite is produced. Instead of relying on the large, batch-based systems that dominate the industry today, their approach is built around a smaller, faster, continuous reactor, one designed to fit where traditional systems simply can’t.
But building deep-tech startups rarely happens under perfect conditions.
While developing the technology, Keddy and his co-founders have also been juggling something many founders know well, competing demands on time and energy.
“Running a reactor, raising non-dilutive funding, and studying for finals at the same time,” Lance shares. “Sleep is optional, but innovation is not.”
For Hexoris, New Brunswick has proven to be a strategic advantage. With support from the province’s growing innovation ecosystem, including collaboration with researchers and industry partners, the company is building momentum quickly.
Hexoris is one of five startups selected to compete at breakthru Live, where founders will pitch their companies for the opportunity to secure up to $200,000 in investment from NBIF.
The live finale takes place on Thursday, March 19 at Fredericton Trade & Convention Centre, bringing together founders, investors, and members of the startup community to celebrate the next generation of New Brunswick companies.
