Ascend Elements has raised $162 million in new equity investments in a follow-up to one of last year’s largest cleantech private equity placements. Major investors include Just Climate, Clearvision Ventures, and IRONGREY. The new equity financing brings the company’s 12-month funding total to $704 million, including the $542 million funding round led by Decarbonization Partners Temasek and Qatar Investment Authority in September 2023.
“By recycling lithium-ion batteries and making new, engineered battery materials with lower carbon emissions, Ascend Elements is accelerating the global transition to zero carbon emissions,” said Mike O’Kronley, CEO of Ascend Elements.
The new funding will advance the construction of Ascend Elements’ Apex 1 facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which will be North America’s first sustainable cathode precursor (pCAM) manufacturing facility open in early 2025. When complete, the one-million-square-foot facility will produce sustainable pCAM and CAM (cathode active materials) for up to 750,000 electric vehicles per year.
The project is supported in part by US Department of Energy and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
pCAM and CAM are engineered materials made to precise microstructure specifications for use in EV batteries. While most of the world’s pCAM and CAM are made in China from primary (mined) metals, U.S.-based Ascend Elements is commercializing an ultra-efficient method to make sustainable pCAM and CAM from black mass, the traditional output of lithium-ion battery recycling facilities. The patented Hydro-to-Cathode direct precursor synthesis process eliminates several intermediary steps in the traditional cathode manufacturing process and provides significant economic and carbon-reduction benefits.
“We are backing a technology that transforms spent lithium-ion batteries into critical materials used in the creation of new batteries,” said Aruna Ramsamy, a managing director at Just Climate. “With its first pCAM facility in construction in the United States, Ascend Elements has the potential to unlock the supply of critical battery materials to accelerate the rollout of electric vehicles.”
Several peer-reviewed studies have shown Ascend Elements’ recycled battery materials perform, as well as similar materials made from primary (mined) sources. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as sole placement agent for the Series D funding round.
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