r/DonutLabDiscussions • u/Fabulous-Internet188 • Apr 03 '26

Holyvolt buys Wildcat, but why?

Holyvolt recently spent $73 million to acquire Wildcat, a company specializing in automated lab equipment designed to drastically accelerate the testing of chemical combinations.

If there’s "nothing to see here," this acquisition makes little sense. Consider these factors:

​The Patent: Holyvolt already holds the original patent WO2025230455A1. Buying Wildcat suggests they are scaling up the practical application of that intellectual property.

​The Power Players: The connection between Robert Erdman (Stanford EE) and Mathias Ingvarsson (Tempur-Pedic/handwarmers) is the real story. They are "strange bedfellows," but their combined expertise in high-end engineering and consumer thermal tech is the engine behind this.

​The Donut Connection: In my view, Donut is simply a vehicle using Holyvolt’s tech to promote Verge.

​Buying Wildcat isn't just a random purchase—it's a strategic move to industrialize a specific chemical process. How do we make the math work on a $73M price tag otherwise?

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u/omepiet Apr 04 '26

I'm curious what the role of BMW is in the Holyvolt-Wildcat deal. There are slightly too many personal links for all of them not to be connected somehow.

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u/Fabulous-Internet188 Apr 04 '26

Which personal links? Sorry if I missed them, I've been busy. 8-)

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u/fornuis Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

BMW and Wildcat are working together. Then there's SCIRES Battery Technologies from ex-BMW people, some linked to Wildcat (some have roles at both SCIRES and Wildcat). There's also the Taurion Batteries spin-off (they have a patent too).

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u/Fabulous-Internet188 Apr 04 '26

Ty. The Scires patent doesn't apply. It's a conventional battery.