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Ascend Elements Secures $300 Million in Funding
Ascend Elements, a U.S.-based engineered materials and lithium-ion battery recycling company, today announced it has secured $300 million in equity and debt financing, including $200 million in Series C equity investments from an international group of strategic and financial investors. The funding round was led by Fifth Wall Climate and joined by SK ecoplant, the environmental unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group. Other new investors include Oman Investment Authority, Lithium Americas Corporation, GLy Capital Management’s New Mobility Fund, Mirae Asset Capital & LS and Shinhan GIB. Many investors from previous funding rounds also participated in the latest round, including Hitachi Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, TDK Ventures, Orbia Ventures, At One Ventures, TRUMPF Venture, and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures. This funding is in addition to two recently awarded grants totaling $480 million from the Department of Energy.
This funding, along with the grants, will accelerate commercialization of Ascend Elements’ innovative and proprietary Hydro-to-Cathode™ direct precursor synthesis process, which establishes a closed-loop, EV battery materials supply chain in North America. The announcement follows Ascend Elements’ recently disclosed plans to invest up to $1 billion to build a sustainable lithium-ion battery materials facility in Hopkinsville, Ky. The first-of-its-kind manufacturing facility, known as “Apex 1”, will produce enough lithium-ion battery pCAM and sustainable CAM to equip up to 250,000 electric vehicles per year.
Ascend Elements to Recycle Lithium-ion Battery Manufacturing Scrap for SK Battery America
Ascend Elements, the vertically integrated lithium-ion battery recycling and engineered-materials company previously known as Battery Resourcers, today announced it has been selected by SK Battery America (SKBA) to recycle both cell and module lithium-ion battery manufacturing scrap from the company’s manufacturing facility in Commerce, Ga. The scrap material will be recycled at Ascend Elements’ new 154,000-square-foot battery recycling facility in Covington, Ga., which can recover 98% of battery materials and return critical battery elements to the battery supply chain.