Vertically integrated lithium-ion battery company Battery Resourcers has completed a Series B equity round to support the development of a commercial-scale recycling processing facility.
The $20 million will help the battery recycler process 10,000 tons of batteries — or the batteries from around 20,000 electric vehicles (EVs)— each year.
Financing was led by venture capital firm Orbia Ventures, and included participation from: At One Ventures, TDK Ventures, TRUMPF Venture, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures and Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures.
Battery Resourcers produces nickel manganese cobalt (NMC)-based cathode active materials with a reduction in energy consumption compared to the production of virgin cathode.
The US firm is engineering a novel process for graphite recovery and purification, which will enable it to return both the cathode and anode active materials back to manufacturers of new batteries.
Battery Resourcers’ CEO Mike O’Kronley (pictured) said: “Being able to convert scrap and end-of-life battery materials into finished, cathode active material that can be directly used in making new batteries drives increased profitability and stability for the lithium-ion battery ecosystem.”
Sameer Bharadwaj, CEO of Orbia said: “By integrating refinement and materials engineering processes, we believe Battery Resourcers’ approach can stabilise the cathode supply chain in North America while accelerating the shift to a clean, circular future.”
Battery Resourcers was founded in 2015 in Worcester, Massachusetts, as a spinout from the laboratory of professor Yan Wang at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Through the support of the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), Battery Resourcers has developed the technology to convert mixed streams of lithium-ion batteries, regardless of their chemistry, to produce various NMC-based cathode active materials.
