Blue Line Battery produces a full line of maintenance-free lithium-ion batteries for forklifts, pallet jacks, electric vehicles and other handling equipment, sold through a national distributor network. The batteries eliminate watering, equalizing and swapping required by lead-acid units and address safety and weight issues cited with 1,500–4,500 pound lead-acid packs. CEO Dustin Herte launched the company in 2017 after working on high-performance electric bikes and adapting that battery expertise to warehouse equipment. The company was initially bootstrapped and received early support from Whitewater’s Community Development Authority, the Whitewater University Innovation Center and accelerator gBETA in Beloit. Blue Line says it has overcome early economic hardship and product-development challenges to bring its technology into warehouses. Management plans to use the latest funding to continue developing its energy-storage technology and to pursue stationary energy-storage opportunities in the solar market, which Herte says is roughly twice the size of forklift operations.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Apr 2020