Plymouth-headquartered clean technology firm Altilium has secured additional equity investment from strategic shareholders SQM and Marubeni Corporation as part of its Series B2 funding round.
The capital extension follows SQM’s initial lead investment in Altilium’s £8.9m Series A round, as well as Marubeni’s participation in its subsequent Series B raise.
The funding follows the award of £18.5m in grant funding through the UK Government’s DRIVE35 initiative, delivered via the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Innovate UK. The public and private funding will support the construction of ACT 3, a commercial refining facility designed to process 24,000 end-of-life electric vehicle batteries annually. The plant will produce nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate, lithium sulphate, and graphite.
Altilium is pursuing a multi-stage commercial scaling strategy, transitioning from its ACT 1 bench-scale unit and ACT 2 pilot plant in Plymouth to the ACT 3 commercial refinery. The company’s long-term plan includes ACT 4, a proposed recycling and cathode active material facility engineered to process 150,000 electric vehicle batteries per year for UK battery gigafactories.
Kamran Mahdavi, chief executive of Altilium, commented: “We are proud to have the continued support of SQM and Marubeni as we advance to the next phase of our growth. Their investment is a strong endorsement of our strategy to scale a UK-based circular economy for battery materials. With the backing of our strategic partners and the UK Government, we are accelerating the development of ACT 3 and laying the foundation for a globally competitive battery recycling industry in the UK.”
The capital raise follows Altilium’s opening of its ACT 2 customer validation centre in Plymouth, which produces battery-ready precursor cathode active materials directly from recycled scrap. The operational testing facility is directly relevant to the Series B2 funding, as it provided the technical validation required for SQM and Marubeni to finance the larger ACT 3 commercial refinery.
Image source: Altilium
