TORONTO - September 25, 2024 - Cyclic Materials, the advanced recycling company creating a circular supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials, today announced it has successfully closed an oversubscribed USD $53 million Series B equity round.
“We're energized to partner with the world’s top sustainability-focused infrastructure and corporate investors to scale our technology’s impact”
The funding 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 Fifth Wall, BMW i Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Planetary Technologies also participated in the round.
This funding brings the company’s total equity raised to over USD $83 million and will enable Cyclic Materials to fast-track its international growth. Cyclic Materials will deploy this capital to build rare earth recycling infrastructure in the US and Europe, and grow its team to support its world-class operations.
“We're energized to partner with the world’s top sustainability-focused infrastructure and corporate investors to scale our technology’s impact,” said 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.”
Importantly, Cyclic Materials’ process of recycling these rare earth materials from magnets achieves significant environmental benefits in comparison to traditional mining processes, including a reduced carbon footprint and unparalleled water efficiency.
“We seek to partner with visionary founders and technology companies that share our commitment to tackling sustainability challenges with innovative solutions,” said Marc Faucher, Managing Partner at ArcTern Ventures. “Cyclic Materials' mission-driven approach to the circular economy combined with its proprietary rare earth metals recycling processes offers a scalable decarbonization solution that contributes to the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions. This alignment with our impact-driven investment strategy is why we chose them to become a part of ArcTern’s investment portfolio.”
The Series B funding follows a USD $3.6 million grant award from Natural Resources Canada that supports the continued operation of Cyclic Materials’ commercial demonstration facility (Hub100) for producing high-purity REEs from recycled magnet material and preparing for scaling to larger operations. These recent public and private investments demonstrate the surging interest in funding companies with technology proven to address climate change and sustainable development.
“The opportunity to invest in companies like Cyclic Materials at this stage of development and scaling is scarce,” said Tobias Jahn, Partner at Hitachi Ventures. “We are impressed with their high growth potential, strong leadership, proprietary extraction processes from electronic and industrial waste, and commitment to overcoming the limited availability of rare earth elements essential for various technologies in today’s electrification era.”
Established in 2021, Cyclic Materials’ 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 center electronic waste. Over the past year, the company forged strategic partnerships with key industry leaders such as Solvay, Vattenfall, Synetiq, and VACUUMSCHMELZE to recycle magnets containing REEs and establish a circular supply chain.
About Cyclic Materials
Established in 2021, Cyclic Materials is a cleantech company creating a circular supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials for supporting the clean energy transition. Through its innovative technology, the company economically, sustainably, and domestically transforms end-of-life products into valuable raw materials that are essential to the production of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and motors for the electronics we use in our daily lives. In 2023, Cyclic Materials commissioned a commercial demonstration facility of the first stage of its process, to recover rare earth magnets from end-of-life materials using the proprietary process, Mag-Cycle™. In 2024, Cyclic Materials opened a second commercial demonstration facility, for the second stage of its process, in Kingston, Ontario where Mixed Rare Earth Oxide is produced using its proprietary hydrometallurgical technology, REEPure™. With the global market for magnets containing REEs forecasted to increase dramatically by 2030, establishing new sources of these critical materials is vital to support the electrification of the global economy. Cyclic Materials is scaling its technology across North America, Europe, and Asia. To learn more, visit cyclicmaterials.earth.
About ArcTern Ventures
ArcTern Ventures is a venture capital firm committed to addressing the climate crisis and advancing sustainability. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Oslo and San Francisco, ArcTern invests globally in innovative technology companies focused on climate action and sustainability—what we call Earthtech. The firm was founded on the premise that accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral economy can disrupt industries and present an unprecedented opportunity for outsized financial returns, benefiting companies, investors, and the planet. ArcTern's latest fund, Fund III, closed in January 2024 with US$337M from leading institutional investors, with a focus on Series A and B startups. Visit www.arcternventures.com
About Hitachi Ventures
Hitachi Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Hitachi Ltd. With $600M assets under management, we focus on investing in early-stage and growth-stage technology companies with strategic relevance to Hitachi. With a global network and extensive experience across various industries, Hitachi Ventures supports innovative startups in their journey to disrupt markets and transform industries. The firm’s investment areas span from environmental tech & circularity, energy, AI & digital technologies, to industrial automation and life sciences. For more information visit www.hitachi-ventures.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
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