{"id":8729,"date":"2025-03-07T10:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T10:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/our-next-energy-founder-returns-as-ceo\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T10:09:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T10:09:43","slug":"our-next-energy-founder-returns-as-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/our-next-energy-founder-returns-as-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Next Energy founder returns as CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over a year after stepping down as CEO of the battery startup <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/02\/01\/battery-darling-our-next-energy-lands-massive-300m-series-b-to-build-gigafactory\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Our Next Energy (ONE)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mujeebijaz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Mujeeb Ijaz<\/a> has resumed his role as the company&#8217;s leader. This development coincides with the announcement of a new funding round, led by Crescent Ventures and Trousdale Ventures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The details of the funding round, including its size, have not been disclosed by ONE, and the company has not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The change in leadership occurred after Ijaz initially stepped down in December 2023, taking on the role of CTO, and was replaced by Paul Humphries, a board member. Ijaz had recruited Humphries, who brought experience from his time at Flex, a contract manufacturer, to the leadership position. This move came as the startup struggled to secure a Series C funding round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Series C funding round fell through when Just Climate withdrew its planned $100 million investment, as reported by Bloomberg in December 2023. At the time, ONE was facing financial challenges, having raised $300 million in a Series B that valued the company at $1.2 billion post-money, while in the process of building a $1.6 billion LFP battery factory in Michigan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To address its financial difficulties, the company laid off 128 employees, approximately 25% of its workforce. With its new funding, ONE has once again shifted its leadership, with Ijaz replacing Humphries as CEO. Additionally, Mansoor Ijaz, Mujeeb&#8217;s brother and chairman of Crescent Ventures, will join the company&#8217;s board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mujeeb Ijaz founded ONE in 2020, following his tenure at Apple and Ford. The startup gained attention for its innovative approach to battery technology, including the development of a dual-chemistry battery pack called Gemini.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Gemini pack enabled a Tesla Model S to travel 752 miles on a single charge. This achievement was made possible by the use of a dual-chemistry design, which combined the benefits of LFP, a durable and low-cost chemistry, with the advantages of manganese-based chemistry for reserve cells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although ONE&#8217;s Gemini pack has been tested in various vehicles, including a BMW iX, it has yet to be adopted by a major automaker. However, BMW was an early investor in the company, demonstrating its interest in ONE&#8217;s innovative battery technology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/03\/06\/founder-of-battery-startup-our-next-energy-returns-as-ceo-following-new-funding\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over a year after stepping down as CEO of the battery startup Our Next Energy (ONE), Mujeeb Ijaz has resumed his role as the company&#8217;s leader. This development coincides with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2792,2793,2794,2795],"class_list":["post-8729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-battery-manufacturing","tag-battery-startups","tag-our-next-energy","tag-trousdale-ventures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/one-ceo-mujeeb-ijaz.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}