Aqua Metals, a lithium battery material recycling company, announced the closing of a $1.5 million bridge loan to fund its lithium battery recycling operations. Over 50% of the bridge loan was funded by management and members of the Board of Directors.
The company also announced the completion of its first multi-week continuous operation campaign at its pilot recycling facility outside Reno.
Aqua Metal provides recycling solutions for materials strategic to energy storage and electric vehicle manufacturing supply chains. The company’s AquaRefining technology is a closed-loop recycling technology, which is stated to replace polluting furnaces and hazardous chemicals with electricity-powered electroplating to recover valuable metals and materials from spent batteries.
The funding provides additional capital to advance Aqua Metals’ efforts to secure a definitive agreement on its long-term financing, as well as to support the buildout of the Sierra ARC commercial facility and the growth of the company.
“We view this bridge loan as a necessary strategic step to maintain momentum while advancing critical commercial agreements and securing funding,” added Cotton. “Our focus remains on finalizing strategic long-term financing, which will enable us to scale operations at the Sierra ARC and significantly expand the U.S. capacity for sustainable battery recycling,” said Steve Cotton, President and CEO of Aqua Metals.
According to Mercom’s 9M and Q3 2024 Funding and M&A Report for Energy Storage and Smart Grid, announced debt and public market financing for Energy Storage companies in 9M 2024 came to $15 billion in 22 deals, a 125% increase YoY compared to $6.6 billion in 26 deals in 9M 2023.
In March, Li-Cycle, another lithium-ion battery recycling company, entered into an agreement to issue a senior secured convertible note in an aggregate principal amount of $75 million from an affiliate of Glencore, a producer, recycler, and marketer of nickel and cobalt for the production of lithium-ion batteries.
