Altilium receives investment from Marubeni

Marubeni, the Japanese trading group, has invested $5 million into Altilium, the British battery materials and recycling company. They have opted to do this as part of the company’s Series B financing round.

Since 1985 Marubeni has played an active role within the battery materials sector and as well as this, the company has been involved in the recycling of used batteries. Recently, Marubeni made the announcement that they were partaking in a, ‘collaboration with Fortum Battery Recycling from Finland.’ The purpose of this would be to, ’jointly establish a sustainable recycling chain for lithium-ion batteries, with a focus on the recycling of graphite.’

One of Altilium’s core aims is to create a sustainable circular economy for battery materials within the UK and they hope that this would reduce dependence on international supply chains, whilst also conserving natural resources.

It was stated by the company that, ’Altilium’s EcoCathode technology can recover over 95 per cent of battery metals from an end-of-life battery, reducing the cost of battery raw materials by up to 20 per cent and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 74 per cent compared to virgin materials.’

Following this, Altilium has recently made the decision to enter into a cooperation with LevertonHELM, which is a British subsidiary of the German chemical company HELM AG. The purpose of this collaboration is to combine Altilium’s expertise in the recovery of battery materials from old batteries, with LevertonHELM’s lithium production capacities.

On the other hand, the strategic investment which was made by Marubeni, was made with the intention of supporting the next stage of development around the planned plant, ACT4, which will be based on Teesside. This project will include detailed engineering studies, land acquisition, planning and permitting an finally the recruitment of a management team. From there, once the plant has become operational, it will be expected to have the capacity to process battery waste from 150,000 electric vehicles every year. It will also be expected to produce 30,000 tonnes of active cathode materials (CAM). Doing this would mean the plant would be able to meet 20% of the UK’s CAM demand by 2030.

Once this agreement was finalised, in July of 2023, the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding which stated they would collaborate over the recycling of electric vehicle batteries within the UK. Since creating this MoU, the companies have already been working together, with the intention of creating a closed loop for the recycling of electric vehicle batteries within the UK. They have also aimed to create a supply chain for end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, which would be recycled at Atilium’s facilities. Due to the large investment this company has received, this project has now been able to turn into a much larger one.

Altilium CEO Kamran Mahdavi, commented, “We are proud to welcome Marubeni as a strategic partner at this pivotal stage in Altilium’s growth journey. Their investment strengthens our position as leaders in sustainable battery materials and reinforces our commitment to building the UK’s largest EV battery recycling facility. Together, we are advancing our mission to create a UK closed-loop supply chain, reduce dependency on imported materials and lowering the environmental footprint of battery production. This partnership marks a major milestone in establishing a truly circular economy for the UK’s battery industry.”