Slovakian battery company InoBat announced Friday it has welcomed China’s Gotion High-tech as its strategic shareholder, after a 25% stake purchase, Kallanish reports.

The undisclosed investment has been nearly a year in the making. It’s the first major investment a top-tier Chinese global battery company makes in a European start-up, the companies claim. However, it’s unclear if the transaction has already been cleared by regulatory authorities in both countries.

“Gotion High-tech has committed significant capital and technology support to ensure and safeguard InoBat’s success of the GIB [Gotion-InoBat-Batteries] framework,” InoBat says in a statement.

GIB is set to deliver “significant progress” in the race to net-zero, using a “transformative development approach and focusing on localisation of battery value-chain for its customers,” the companies claim. The initial focus of the partnership will be in central eastern Europe, as well as Morocco. In June, Gotion High-tech announced plans to build a 100-gigawatt-hour EV battery plant in the North African country, with an estimated investment of $6.4 billion by 2030.

“Our partnership with Gotion High-tech heralds a new era in significant value creation through collaborative win-win alliances, helping to close the gap between Asian battery leaders and the rest of the world,” comments InoBat’ ceo Marian Bocek. “GIB will unlock the full potential of Europe and our neighbours in the EMEA region in delivering localised net-zero closed-loop circular battery value chains for e-mobility as well as superior energy storage solutions.”

The Chinese firm, which saw its overseas revenue triple in H1, is after further collaborations “in Europe and across the globe,” according to its chief executive Li Zhen. “Through our joint efforts, we aim to develop and manufacture batteries that will find their way into countless households in Europe. We strive to play a pivotal role in achieving the continent’s carbon neutrality goals by 2050,” he adds, in a statement.

The Shenzhen-listed firm signed an MOU in April with Yahua and LG Energy Solution to produce lithium hydroxide in Morocco, likely to feed the planned project with InoBat.

The Sino-Slovak partnership aims to intensify and fast-track R&D across the battery value chain including innovative scale-up, structuring and financing templates. Yet, it’s unclear whether InoBat’s original gigafactory plans remain unchanged. The company planned to build its first factory in Serbia, with capacity of 32 GWh. It also had plans for a western Europe plant in Spain or the UK, and a 40 GWh factory with Gotion in central eastern Europe.