Westborough EV battery recycling firm raises $300M
Photo | Courtesy Ascend Elements
A mock-up of the new Ascend Elements manufacturing facility in Kentucky.
Ascend Elements has secured $300 million in equity and debt financing, including $200 million in Series C equity investments.
The new funds announced by the Westborough company Wednesday come after two grants totaling $480 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to help finance the construction of the new sustainable electric vehicle battery material facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
The Series C money will help accelerate the construction of the facility, which will produce sustainable, engineered battery materials from recycled lithium-ion batteries, according to a release about the new funding. The new facility will provide materials for up to 250,000 new electric vehicles per year once it’s operational.
“Our investment partners understand the urgent need to produce sustainable, lithium-ion battery materials,” Ascend CEO Mike O’Kronley said in the press release. “It’s not enough to simply recycle lithium-ion batteries and recover metals for the global commodity markets. Our patented, closed-loop process goes beyond simple battery recycling. Instead, we produce sustainable, high-performance cathode active materials that can go directly back into new EV batteries.”
Ascend already has a facility in Georgia with the ability to produce more than 30,000 metric tons of recycled EV battery material by the end of 2022. The materials there will move to the Kentucky plant to make new batteries. Ascend hopes to recycle more than 150,000 metric tons of lithium-ion batteries per year by 2026.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments