Recycling startup Metastable Materials secures seed funding from Sequoia India’s Surge & others
Recycling startup Metastable Materials secures seed funding from Sequoia India’s Surge & others
Metastable Materials, a firm that uses innovative technology to recycle lithium-ion batteries, has received venture funding. Surge, Sequoia Capital India, and Southeast Asia’s quick scale-up program spearheaded the funding round.
Deep-tech venture capital firm Speciale Invest, Theia Ventures, and many other private investors also participated in the investment round. The amount of money raised was not disclosed.
Millions of vehicles worldwide use lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, and demand for them is increasing rapidly. This has resulted in a $4.6 billion market for Li-ion battery recycling, which is predicted to grow at least fivefold by 2030.
“Natural resources are finite and our collective vision of a more sustainable future will depend on our ability to first recycle and second, to do so in a way that is cost-efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly,” says Shubham Vishvakarma, founder, of Metastable.
Many nations, including the EU, intended to enact legislation to ensure that Li-ion batteries can be recycled or repurposed at the end of their useful lives. Despite the necessity of recycling to recover and reuse metals from discharged Li-ion batteries, existing technologies face significant challenges. They include logistical challenges, such as transporting heavy Li-ion batteries to recycling operations, which can be costly due to Lithium’s high flammability and rigorous rules governing its packing.
Metal extraction from Li-ion batteries is a complex technique that requires dismantling, segregating, and retrieving them, demanding significant investments in infrastructure and engineering that have proven difficult for corporations to perform financially on a wide scale.
To address these issues, Metastable developed the world’s first chemical-free Integrated Carbothermal Reduction process for recycling and recovering valuable components from batteries such as copper, aluminum, cobalt, nickel, and lithium.
When compared to typical battery recycling procedures, this technology considerably reduces capital and operational expenses while obtaining a recovery rate of more than 90%.
“We’re proud to be pioneering a solution that safeguards our future, from providing a sustainable supply of metals for the manufacture of EV batteries to setting new benchmarks for the way metals are recycled, paving the way for new technologies and innovations that will have the power to truly move the needle in fighting climate change,” says Vishvakarma.
Because present techniques in India do not match international requirements, Metastable is developing safe storage and packaging options for spent batteries to move them from customers to recycling facilities. With a heat-resistant structure, their packaging is meant to limit the risk of fire during shipping.
The company is extending its battery recycling capabilities and has constructed a facility in Bengaluru that can handle up to 1,500 tonnes of material per year, fulfilling 6% of India’s Li-ion battery recycling demand. The increased cash will be used to hire personnel to support manufacturing, industrial engineering, supply chain management, and day-to-day operations.
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Content Credit: BUSINESS INSIDER INDIA
