15-05-2025
Alabama is providing big support for big ideas
As a high school senior, Lonnie Johnson won a 1968 science fair at the University of Alabama with a three-and-a-half-foot robot powered by compressed air and a remote control unit fashioned out of parts from a walkie-talkie. It was the first time he was publicly recognized for what would become a decades-long dedication to innovation, including projects in the U.S. Air Force's stealth bomber program and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory—not to mention the blockbuster invention of the Super Soaker water gun, which sold millions starting in the 1990s.
Johnson—a recent inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame —has more than 150 patents to his name, considered to be second only to George Washington Carver among African Americans. Today, he's the founder and chairman of Johnson Energy Storage (JES) with a new focus on commercializing the solid-state batteries he's been developing for the past quarter century. JES's all-solid-state lithium batteries are lighter, safer, and cheaper than lithium ion batteries, thanks to a glass electrolyte separator Johnson developed. Car and Driver magazine calls solid-state batteries the 'holy grail' of energy storage. In addition to providing a huge boost to electric vehicles, solid-state batteries also could be used to power anything from remote sensors and RFID tags to entire electrical grids.
It's no surprise, then, that companies—including many automakers—are investing billions to get the technology to market. That competition doesn't worry Johnson. 'A lot of companies out there are working with materials that we worked on in the past. We know the limitations of those materials because we passed on them,' he says, noting that he enjoys going up against deep-pocketed rivals. 'It's classic David and Goliath—I really like taking on the big guys and beating them at their game.'
JES recently got a boost in those efforts from InvestAL, a venture capital program funded with $98 million from the U.S. Department of the Treasury State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). InvestAL made a $1 million investment in JES's Series A round alongside investors including NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and NFL All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett.
Launched by Innovate Alabama, InvestAL aims to spur economic development by matching private investments in high-growth Alabama-based companies in exchange for an equity stake. 'At some point, Dr. Johnson and his company are going to have some sort of liquidity event,' says Charlie Pond, executive director of SSBCI at Innovate Alabama. 'Then those resources will be poured back into our ecosystem to help support founders for generations to come.'
A THREE-PRONGED PLAN
In 2020, the state of Alabama kicked off an ambitious effort to supercharge entrepreneurship and technology growth in the state. Governor Kay Ivey engaged the Hoover Institution, a Stanford University think tank headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to research the best ways to support the local innovation ecosystem through public policy. Innovate Alabama was created to put the group's recommendations into action and focus on three key areas: talent development, access to resources, and lifestyle and recreation.
Pond is a passionate believer in Innovate Alabama's mission—and in the power of each of its three pillars to drive the success of the others. Alabama's natural beauty, for example, is an underutilized resource that the state's economic development leaders believe will appeal to the kind of innovators it wants to attract, allowing them to thrive personally and professionally.
Another goal is to keep more students in Alabama after they receive their diploma. In addition to the University of Alabama and Auburn University, Alabama is home to dozens of other colleges, including 13 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). 'A lot of people come in and stay for four years, and then they leave,' Pond says. 'So, it makes sense to build out entrepreneurship programs within our universities and get students building businesses. We can help those young entrepreneurs grow roots in the state and then retain them.'
FUNDING A VIRTUOUS CYCLE
That retention happens in part through funding, including partnering with private lenders to extend credit to small businesses and entrepreneurs. With the InvestAL program, the goal is to both create jobs and catalyze private investment. 'We don't want to invest $98 million and be done,' Pond says. 'We want to build out a self-sustaining program that can continually invest in both the small businesses on the debt side and in venture-ready, high-growth, scalable companies.'
For JES, that means critical support for its Alabama operations. The company recently announced the establishment of the Dr. Lonnie Johnson Technology Research & Incubation Center on the campus of Tuskegee University. Johnson, who earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from Tuskegee, is excited about bringing the large-university research model to an HBCU and providing opportunities for Tuskegee students to work alongside the JES scientists developing cutting-edge battery technology.
It's all part of the vision that he and Innovate Alabama share for a virtuous cycle of investment and innovation that drives the state forward. 'We have a number of junior engineers who have equity in the company. I'd like to see them go off and launch companies themselves and have greater economic impact,' Johnson says. 'There's nothing like really, really ambitious goals to drive things and motivate people to put their best foot forward.'
