A Kingston company that recycles the rare earth elements needed to power electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and a variety of consumer and industrial appliances has raised US$27 million in series-A financing.
On Tuesday, Cyclic Materials announced the financing round led by Energy Impact Partners and BMW i Ventures, with participation from Fifth Wall, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada and existing investor Planetary Technologies.
The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to over $30 million and will contribute to the scale-up of its technologies.
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“With the support of our partners, we intend to continue advancing the scale of our technologies in order to meet the rising demand for rare earth elements in the near future and enable a more sustainable future,”said Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and co-founder of Cyclic Materials. The company is planning future growth in North America, Europe and Asia, he added.
“Rare earth elements are critical for many applications, from small electronics to large wind turbines, but are very challenging to produce,” said Kasper Sage, managing director of BMW i Ventures. “The Cyclic Materials team has developed a novel process that can create a sustainable, secondary supply source.”
Founded in 2021, Cyclic Materials has developed a recycling process that re-circulates rare earth elements (REEs) and other metals back into the manufacturing process. REEs are critical to electrification and decarbonization and are key components of electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and consumer and industrial appliances.
However, they are among the least recycled metals due to the difficulty of separating the various magnetic materials in end-of-life products. The global market for REEs is forecast to increase threefold by 2030. While new mines will be necessary to meet projected demand, developing a domestic supply chain of high-quality REEs reduces the need for virgin material.
Cyclic Materials also recycles copper, aluminum, steel, cobalt and nickel, which are also required for electrification and decarbonization. Electric vehicles, for example, require two-and-a-half times as much copper as internal combustion vehicles.
In January, Cyclic Materials announced that it had started working with global electric car company Polestar to build a closed loop recycling pathway for REEs. In February, the company received $3.6 million in federal funding.
“We are excited to back Ahmad and Cyclic Materials’ mission to develop domestic, circular supply chains for REEs and other critical metals,” said Shayle Kann, partner at Energy Impact Partners. “These metals are essential for electrification and recycling them has substantial economic and decarbonization benefits.”
