Renewable Metals Raises $12 Million Series A to Advance Lithium-ion Battery Recycling

According to company reports, Australia-based Renewable Metals has secured $12 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round to accelerate the commercialization of its lithium-ion battery recycling technology and progress plans for its first commercial facility.

The round, led by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation through Virescent Ventures, included participation from European Metal Recycling, Climate Tech Partners, Neglected Climate Opportunities and Investible. The raise exceeds the company’s initial $8 million target and brings total funding to more than $38 million.

Renewable Metals operates a prototype facility in Kewdale, Western Australia, and is developing a commercial plant in the Hunter region of New South Wales. The company plans to run its prototype continuously from mid-2026, starting at 960 tonnes per year and scaling to 2,000 tonnes per year to generate performance data for full-scale deployment. 

The funding will support three areas: continuous operation of the prototype plant, completion of front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the first commercial site, and expansion of engineering, research and commercial teams.

The company’s process uses an alkali-based hydrometallurgical approach to recover lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese from end-of-life batteries. It is designed to handle multiple chemistries—including NMC and LFP—in a single processing line, avoiding the need for separate systems and reducing capital requirements.

Renewable Metals said its process can achieve more than 95% recovery rates while recovering up to 30% more lithium than conventional acid-based methods. The system also eliminates intermediate black mass production and avoids waste streams such as sodium sulphate, which can pose disposal challenges in the United States and Europe.

The technology is built around modular plant design, allowing facilities to be deployed at smaller scale and closer to feedstock sources. This approach is intended to reduce transportation costs and enable more localized recycling capacity, particularly in Western markets where processing infrastructure is limited.

Chairman Peter Beaven said the company aims to compete with established recyclers while enabling domestic recovery of critical materials. Chief executive Luan Atkinson added that the platform is designed to scale gradually with feedstock availability rather than relying on large, centralized plants.

Blair Pritchard of Virescent Ventures said the ability to process multiple battery chemistries in a single line addresses a key technical constraint in the sector, as the mix of battery types continues to evolve.

Global lithium-ion battery recycling capacity remains concentrated in China, with significant volumes of battery waste exported for processing. Companies such as Renewable Metals are seeking to develop alternatives that support regional supply chains and reduce reliance on offshore refining.

Source: Renewable Metals

SUNSHINE Spotlight: Battery recycling developers are moving toward modular, chemistry-flexible systems to enable localized processing and reduce dependence on large centralized facilities.