Redwood Materials receives $700M investment

In a blog post to its website dated July 28, Redwood Materials, Carson City, Nevada, says it has received an external investment of more than $700 million from a group of strategic investors “who understand the mission and value of what Redwood is working to achieve.” The round was led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., including Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Baillie Gifford, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Fidelity. All of the company’s Series B investors, Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, returned for this round, and Valor Equity Partners, Emerson Collective and Franklin Templeton also participated, Redwood says.  

“At Redwood, we know that in the coming decades, all transportation will be electric and all electricity will be sustainable,” the post reads. “The lithium-ion batteries and other materials needed to power these solutions will need to be reused. Redwood is creating a closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles and energy products, making them truly sustainable and continuing to drive down the costs for batteries.” 

JB Straubel, Redwood Materials CEO, says, “With this capital, Redwood will be able to accelerate our mission to make battery materials sustainable and affordable, accomplishing the change we need in the world with a circular economy. We’re grateful for these strategic investors who bring decades of experience investing in and supporting companies that build transformative technology and who understand the mission and value of what Redwood is working to achieve.”  

“We are excited to begin this investment in the talented and accomplished team at Redwood as they expand their pursuit of building a world-class sustainable, closed-loop battery supply chain for electric vehicles,” Joe Fath, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Fund, says. “In our view, the need for these materials will grow exponentially over time as we enter the era of de-carbonization. We believe Redwood is well-positioned to be at the forefront of tackling this emerging and critically important problem.” 

Redwood is currently developing processes to produce battery materials to resell into the battery supply chain. The company says it has partnered with Panasonic at the Gigafactory, Envision AESC in Tennessee and Amazon to recycle lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles and other sources, including e-scrap. In the spring, Redwood Materials and ERI, a Fresno, California-based electronics recycling company, announced that they had formed an exclusive partnership to recycle batteries and solar panels. Under the terms of the partnership, Redwood Materials made a significant strategic investment in ERI, and Straubel joined ERI’s board of directors. 

In the blog post, Redwood says it announced plans in June to triple the size of its Carson City facilities to 550,000 square feet as well as to build another site on 100 acres in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, creating more than 500 additional jobs over the next couple of years.

“With this round, we’ll be able to significantly expand our capabilities and create new battery materials in the U.S. for the first time,” the post states.