Metastable Materials Raises Seed Funding to Revolutionize Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling
- ByStartupStory | April 3, 2023
Using cutting-edge technology, the startup Metastable Materials recycles lithium-ion batteries. It has received seed funding. Surge, Sequoia Capital India, and Southeast Asia’s rapid scale-up programme led the financing round.
Speciale Invest, a deep-tech venture capital firm, Theia Ventures, and several other individual investors also participated in the funding round. The specifics of the money raised were kept private.
Millions of vehicles are powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries worldwide, and the market for these batteries is expanding quickly. This has given rise to a $4.6 billion market for recycling Li-ion batteries, predicted to increase by at least five times by 2030.
“Natural resources are finite, and our collective vision of a more sustainable future will depend on our ability first to recycle and second, to do so in a way that is cost-efficient, scalable and environmentally friendly,” says Shubham Vishvakarma, founder of Metastable.
Numerous nations, including the EU, intended to enact legislation to guarantee that Li-ion batteries can be recycled or used for other purposes after their useful lives. Even though recycling is crucial for recovering and reusing metals from used Li-ion batteries, the current processes have several drawbacks. These include logistical challenges like the pricey and difficult (due to lithium’s high flammability and strict packaging regulations) transportation of large Li-ion batteries to recycling facilities.
It has been challenging for businesses to carry out the complex process of extracting metals from Li-ion batteries profitably on a large scale. This procedure involves disassembling, segregating, and retrieving them, necessitating significant investments in facilities and engineering.
To overcome these difficulties, Metastable developed the first chemical-free Integrated Carbothermal Reduction process for recycling and recovering priceless components from batteries, including copper, aluminium, cobalt, nickel, and lithium.
Compared to conventional battery recycling techniques, this technology significantly lowers capital and operating costs while achieving a recovery rate of over 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.
As the current practices in India do not adhere to international standards, Metastable is developing safe storage and packaging solutions for used batteries to be transported from consumers to recycling facilities. Their packaging features a heat-resistant structure intended to lower the fire risk during transportation.
The company is expanding its battery recycling capabilities to meet 6% of India’s demand for Li-ion battery recycling. It has opened a facility in Bengaluru that can process up to 1,500 tonnes of material annually. Using the new funding, the startup intends to employ personnel to support manufacturing, industrial engineering, supply chain management, and daily operations.
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