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The Massachusetts startup Battery Resourcers has raised $70M following their Series B funding of $20M earlier this year. Investors participating in the earlier round were once again investing with Hitachi Ventures as a new investor.
Battery Resourcers dates back to 2015 when it was spun out from a research project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The idea throughout the development has been to be able to handle different types of lithium-ion battery chemistry and synthesize these into new cathodes.
The previous funding enabled the company to convert its original facility in Worcester to a disassembly and shredding plant while the establishment of two new pilot plants were initiated in Westborough, Massachusetts and Novi, Michigan. Presumably one of these plants will convert to a 10,000 tpa plant with commissioning the first quarter of 2022.
With this investment the company is eying the European market where it will build two new plants which will be commissioned already by the end of 2022 and with cathode material production following a year after that, adding the company's total capacity to 30,000 tonnes, according to the company in an interview in Tech Crunch.
So far Battery Resourcers has only revealed a partnership with American Honda through which they will process their batteries from Honda and Acura vehicles. The company says however that several OEMs and battery manufacturers have tested the cathode material that comes out of the recycling process. Battery Resourcers has also through WPI been involved as one of the partners in the Recell Center managed by Argonne National Laboratories.