Cyclic Materials Secures $53 Million for Global Expansion of Rare Earth Recycling Infrastructure

September 26, 2024

3 Min Read
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TORONTO --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.

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.

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CircularityRecycling
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