The Hottest Battery Recycling Company Receives Another $162 Million in Investment

Ascend Elements today announced it has raised an additional $162 million in new equity investment, following last year's largest cleantech private equity placement. Leading investors include Just Climate, Clearvision Ventures and IRONGREY. The new equity financing brings the company’s total funding in the past 12 months to $704 million, including a $542 million round in September 2023 led by Decarbonization Partners, Temasek and the Qatar Investment Authority.

The new funding will advance Ascend Elements’ Apex 1 facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which will be North America’s first sustainable cathode precursor (pCAM) manufacturing facility and is set to open in early 2025. Once completed, the 1 million square foot facility will produce sustainable pCAM and CAM (cathode active materials) for up to 750,000 electric vehicles annually. The project is partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act (BIL).

pCAM and CAM are engineered materials fabricated to precise microstructural specifications for use in electric vehicle batteries. While most pCAMs and CAMs in the world are manufactured in China from virgin (mined) metals, but US-based Ascend Elements is commercializing an ultra-efficient method of manufacturing sustainable pCAM and CAM facilities from black materials (the output of lithium-ion battery recycling). The patented Hydro-to-Cathode® direct precursor synthesis process eliminates several intermediate steps in the traditional cathode manufacturing process and provides significant economic and carbon emissions reduction benefits.