A Canadian company called Cyclic Materials is working to create a supply chain of cyclic rare earth elements (REEs) using advanced recycling processes. The company recently raised $53 million in a Series B equity round to accelerate its global expansion and recycling infrastructure.
Cyclic Materials was founded in Toronto in the fall of 2021 following a successful seed round. From there, the Rare Earth Element (REE) recycling specialist began developing and scaling its proprietary technology that can economically and sustainably recover valuable raw materials from end-of-life EV motors, wind turbines, MRI equipment, and other electronic waste.
Rather than focusing on a specific component, such as batteries, the company focuses on the recycling of rare earth magnets – a type of permanent magnet made from alloys of rare earth elements, which are part of a set of seventeen chemicals on the periodic table. To do so, Cyclic Materials has already launched its “Mag-Cycle” (Spoke) and “REEPure” (Hub) processes and proven their capabilities at bench scale.
Following the REEPure pilot in the fall of 2022, Cyclic Materials has proven its magnetic performance capacity of 10 tons per year, which is obvious. This historic event has attracted the attention of several foreign investors who have joined a successful series of funding in the spring of 2023, including BMW i Ventures (BiV), Energy Impact Partners (EIP), and government funding from the Sustainable Development Technology Council of Canada (SDTC) .
Since then, the company has launched a Mag-Cycle test facility with a design capacity of 8,000 tons per year, and a REEPure commercial demonstration facility with a magnet design capacity of 100 tons of rare earths per year.
Today, Cyclic Materials announced another successful funding round of up to $53 million.
Cyclic gains more funding for recycling rare earth materials
According to a Cyclic Materials release this morning, it has completed an oversubscribed Series B round of up to $53 million. The latest round was led by ArcTern Ventures and welcomed new investors like BDC Capital's Climate Tech Fund, Hitachi Ventures, and Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund. Existing investors such as Fifth Wall, BMW i Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Planetary Technologies also participated.
With its Series B round completed, Cyclic Materials has raised $83 million to date. It intends to use the capital to establish a global recycling infrastructure in the US and Europe and to grow its internal team. The company's founder and CEO Ahmad Ghahreman added:
We have the ability to partner with the world's top sustainability-focused infrastructure and corporate investors to maximize the impact of our technology. This funding reinforces confidence in our ability to create a circular economy for the rare earths needed in the clean energy transition. Not only is our technology critical to supporting sustainable domestic production of rare earths, but it will also play an important role in re-establishing North American and European leadership in the rare earth industry.
Like the benefits presented by other rare earth recycling materials like Redwood Materials, for example, Cyclic Materials' magnetic recycling process delivers significant environmental benefits compared to traditional mining processes, including carbon reduction and “unparalleled water efficiency.”
Cyclic Material's successful Series B funding joins a recent $3.6 million grant issued by Natural Resources Canada. Both come together to support the continued operation of Cyclic Materials' “Hub100” demonstration facility (seen above), which produces pure rare earth materials from recycled magnetic materials.
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