Funding for second-life EV battery materials manufacturer reaches $4 billion

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Redwood Materials announced the close of a $1 billion Series D funding, co-led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Redwood has now raised nearly $2 billion in equity capital.

The funds, which build on a $2 billion conditional loan from the Department of Energy, are expected to be used to continue building the company’s capacity, expanding the domestic battery materials supply chain.

Redwood manufactures anode and cathode materials, in part from recycled materials, which are used for the EV battery market. Together, these components amount to nearly 80% of the material cost of a lithium-ion battery, and currently they are exclusively manufactured overseas. According to the company, U.S. battery cell manufacturers are estimated to offshore more than $150 billion in value by 2030.

The company said on average it can recover at least 95% of the critical battery elements (including lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper), and use these metals to manufacture anode and cathode components.

“We are relentlessly focused on expanding our collection of end-of-life batteries, increasing our refining capability to recover higher quantities, and harnessing their value to make the most sustainable products,” said Redwood.

The company has a manufacturing facility that is already built and operational in northern Nevada, currently producing anode copper foil. Panasonic is the first customer for copper foil at the Nevada factory.

“As the electrification megatrend continues to accelerate, building a local sustainable battery materials supply chain is more important now than ever,” said Sebastien Gagnon, a managing director in private equity, Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Redwood expects to produce 100 GWh per year of battery materials, enough to produce more than 1 million EVs each year. The DOE Loans Program Office estimates that 1 million EVs will reduce annual gasoline consumption by over 395 million gallons and avoiding more than 3.5 million tons of CO2 emissions each year.

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