According to Green Li-ion, the company’s battery recycling machine is “the size of a small house,” so it’s no wonder the Singapore-based startup needed top-up funding. It had only raised about $15 million before its latest cash injection.
This week, Green Li-ion announced a $20.5 million “pre-series B” round led by climate technology investor TRIREC. The startup said it also had other investors, including SOSV and Equinor Ventures, his VC arm of the Norwegian-owned fossil fuel giant.
The deal boosted Green Li-ion’s valuation to $187 million just three years later, CEO Leon Farrant told TechCrunch. The startup’s logo is (you guessed it!) a green lion.
The new cash will help start-up scale production of recycling technology. According to the company, it can process “100% of all used lithium batteries” and eventually pop out the precursor cathode active material used in new lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium is in high demand and mining the metal wreaks havoc on the environment. Recycling technology has become an important tool for reducing the footprint of things like electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.
Image credit: green lithium ion
Green Li-ion does not recycle the battery itself. It licenses its technology to battery manufacturers and recyclers such as Aleon and TES (owned by his SK, a South Korea-based fossil fuel giant). Green Li-ion aims to produce 50 recycling units per year at his two factories in Houston, Texas and Singapore.
Regarding its “pre-series B,” Farrant said the startup split the series B into two parts. “The relatively low level of funding to date has forced this startup to draw a line in the sand and establish a valuation boost for the bulk of the funding,” the founder added. .
