Rare earth recycler Cyclic Materials raises $53 million
Cyclic Materials—already having attracted investments from Polstar and BMW, which led its Series A funding in April 2023 and joined Series B—will now use the fresh capital from Series B to build a rare earth recycling infrastructure in the US and Europe and expand its team.
“Rare earth elements are crucial for many applications – from small electronic devices to large wind turbines – but their production is very difficult,” explained Kasper Sage, Managing Director of BMW i Ventures, when the German carmaker invested in the recycling company’s first round. “The Cyclic team has developed a novel process that can create a sustainable, secondary source of supply.”
Series B has now raised Cyclic Materials’ total equity capital to over 83 million US dollars. The round was led by ArcTern Ventures and supported by new investors BDC Capital’s Climate Tech Fund, Hitachi Ventures, Zero Infinity Partners, Climate Investment, and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. Existing investors participating in this latest round besides BMW i Ventures are Fifth Wall, Energy Impact Partners, and Planetary Technologies.
Rare earths are currently among the least recycled metals, as it is difficult to separate the various magnetic materials in end-of-life products. Cyclic Materials says its proprietary technologies are capable of “economically and sustainably recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, MRI machines, and data centre electronic waste. “
Rare earth metals recovered from magnets have significant environmental benefits compared to conventional mining methods, including a lower carbon footprint and significantly better water efficiency.
Since its foundation in 2021, Cyclic Materials has already developed plants to prepare for commercial operation. The first demonstration plant (“Hub100”) was recently opened in Kingston, Canada for which the North American recycling company received a USD $3.6 million grant from Natural Resources Canada. The demonstration facility (Hub100) produces high-purity REEs from recycled magnet material.
The Canadian company intends to expand its business in Europe from North America in the coming months and recently garnered the British vehicle recycling company Synetiq as a partner. The company has entered into various strategic partnerships with companies such as Vattenfall to recycle magnets containing rare earth elements and establish a circular supply chain.
Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and Co-Founder of Cyclic Materials. “This funding underscores the confidence in our ability to create the circular economy for rare earths needed for the clean energy transition. Not only is our technology essential for supporting sustainable domestic production of rare earths, but it will also play a critical role in re-establishing North American and European leadership in the rare earths industry.”
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