Li Industries, a developer of lithium-ion battery recycling technologies, announced the closing of a Series A funding round of $7 million. Khosla Ventures led the round with participation from Shell Ventures and Xerox Ventures.
Li Industries develop scalable direct recycling technologies for lithium-ion batteries. According to the company, its patented recycling process can generate high-purity recycled battery materials, which can be directly redeployed into new lithium-ion batteries. Li Industries plans to build a commercial battery sorting and recycling facility in the US, which is expected to open in 2023.
“A truly scalable, cost-effective battery recycling approach is critical to address the many supply chain and sustainability challenges faced by the EV industry today,” commented Rajesh Swaminathan, Partner at Khosla Ventures.
“We look forward to working with the Li Industries team to advance the circular economy with their innovative battery recycling technologies, we believe that their technology is a game-changer in tackling the climate and economic challenges of lithium-ion battery recycling,” said Phoebe Wang, Investment Director at Shell Ventures.
In June, India-based lithium-ion battery recycling startup BatX Energies raised $1.6 million in a seed funding round led by JITO Angel Network. The company said it had developed a proprietary zero-waste – zero-emission technology to extract critical rare earth metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese from scrap lithium-ion batteries.
According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2022 Funding and M&A Report for Storage, Grid & Efficiency, In Q2 2022, VC funding for Energy Storage, Smart Grid, and Efficiency companies increased to $2.4 billion in 34 deals compared to $1.6 billion in 37 deals in Q1 2022.
Earlier this year, Glencore, a commodity trading and mining company, entered into a deal with Li-Cycle, a lithium-ion battery recycling company, to supply manufacturing scrap and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. As part of the deal, Glencore will invest $200 million in Toronto-based Li-Cycle.
