Cyclic Materials raises $27M to scale advanced critical metals recycling technology

Cyclic Materials, a Kingston, Ontario-based advanced metals recycling company focused on producing critical minerals, has raised $27 million in an oversubscribed Series A financing round, led by Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and BMW i Ventures (BiV), and included participation from Fifth Wall, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) and existing Cyclic Materials investor Planetary Technologies.

Cyclic Materials says this funding round brings its total capital raised to over $30 million and will contribute to the scale-up of its technologies.

RELATED: Cyclic Materials targets rare earth metals recycling

“We are very excited about this new funding and our new partnerships with EIP, BiV, Fifth Wall and BIC, which will provide the capital required for the scale-up of our technologies and help us plan our future growth in North America, Europe and Asia,” says Ahmad Ghahreman, Cyclc Materials CEO and co-founder. “With the support of our partners we intend to continue advancing the scale of our technologies in order to meet the rising demand for rare earth elements in the near future and enable a more sustainable future.”

Founded in 2021, the company says it is creating a more sustainable, domestic supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other metals through a recycling process that recirculates REEs back into the manufacturing process, reducing the environmental impact of the global energy transition. It adds that REEs are critical to electrification and decarbonization as they are key components of electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and consumer and industrial appliances.

The company says REEs are among the least recycled metals due to the difficulty of separating the various magnetic materials in end-of-life products. However, with the global market for REEs forecast to increase three-fold by 2030, establishing new sources of REEs is critical. Cyclic Materials says REE and metal recycling has many economic and environmental benefits over mining, such as a shorter development timeline, lower consumption of reagents and water, reduced waste and a significantly smaller carbon footprint.

While new mines also are necessary to meet projected demand, developing a domestic supply chain of high-quality REEs reduces the need for virgin material. Through its proprietary technologies, Cyclic Materials says it can cost-effectively recycle REEs from a diverse supply of end-of-life products. REEs the company recovers include neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium and samarium.

Additionally, the company’s process recycles copper, aluminum, steel, cobalt and nickel—metals that also are required for electrification and decarbonization. Electric vehicles, for example, require two-and-a-half times as much copper as internal combustion vehicles. Beyond electric vehicles, copper is necessary for renewables, transmission and distribution infrastructure and battery storage technologies.

Since its founding, Cyclic Materials notes it has developed pilot plants and distributed high-quality REE samples to prospective clients, secured supply chain agreements with internationally recognized companies, obtained Sustainable Development Technology Council of Canada funding and received multiple industry awards.

“REEs are critical for many applications, from small electronics to large wind turbines, but are very challenging to produce,” BiV Managing Director Kasper Sage says. “The Cyclic Materials team has developed a novel process that can create a sustainable, secondary supply source. We are excited about the company’s plan to scale this technology, helping secure the metals supply chain of the future.”