Germany-based cylib, a company that offers an “innovative” and sustainable technology for Lithium-ion battery recycling, announced on Wednesday that it has raised €8M in an extension Seed round of funding. With this, the total Seed round comes to €11.6M.
The company says the funds will be used to establish a recycling facility.
The round was led by Europe’s leading climate tech VC, World Fund. It only backs entrepreneurs building climate tech solutions that have the potential to save at least 100 megatonnes of CO2 every year, which it believes cylib can achieve through its technology.
Additionally, 10x Founders, backed by a venture network of 200 founders, participated as a co-investor. Existing investors VSquared Ventures and Speedinvest also joined the round along with business angels Kai Hansen and Karim Jalbout.
Battery recycling end-to-end technology
Founded in 2022 by Lilian Schwich, Gideon Schwich and Paul Sabarny, cylib is a startup for holistic battery recycling. It has developed a method that makes it possible to recycle lithium traction batteries, the ones used in electric vehicles (EVs).
The startup claims to recycle with a 90 per cent efficiency rate while recovering raw materials during the recycling process. This lowers the carbon footprint of the whole battery value chain and decreases the need to mine additional raw materials, all of which contribute to the sustainability of the electric mobility sector.
CEO Lilian Schwich says, “Since I was a student, I considered recycling a powerful tool to reduce the significant environmental impact caused by raw material extraction. Our process recovers all raw materials, including valuable elements such as lithium, cobalt as well as graphite, which are simply disposed of in other processes.”
Aachen-based cylib was spun out of RWTH Aachen University and its proprietary technology is now patent pending.
cybil’s customers include electric vehicle makers, battery manufacturers, and raw materials processors in the business of acquiring reprocessed raw materials.
A substitute for fossil fuel-emitting vehicles
Cylib believes recycling lithium batteries has the potential to reduce the depletion and price of raw materials and pollutants produced during the manufacture of lithium-ion cells.
When compared to other methods, cylib’s approach recovers lithium and graphite using a water-based process, which dramatically eliminates the need for chemicals and acids.
Given the need to electrify all modes of transportation over the next two decades, the overall potential market for cylib’s battery recycling technology seems enormous.
Fraunhofer ISI estimates that in order to meet the demand for EVs, Europe would require 2.1 million tonnes of battery recycling yearly by 2040 and roughly 420,000 tonnes by 2030. This will only increase as adoption keeps growing rapidly, with personal EV ownership in Europe increasing by 19 per cent in 2021 alone.
New European regulation
According to cylib, 2024 is expected to see a series of new EU laws come into effect in order to tighten the obligation of EV makers and resellers to recycle batteries at the end of their natural lifespan.
The battery recycling sector, in which cylib is positioned to gain a sizable market share, will need to significantly expand its market and adopt new technology to meet these upcoming laws.
Co-founder Gideon Schwich says, “The upcoming changes of EU regulations on battery recycling will be pivotal, if we are truly to seize the decarbonising potential of switching away from fossil fuel emitting vehicles, transitioning en masse to EVs. Only if all raw materials used in batteries for EVs are able to be safely and sustainably recycled will we establish a truly circular economy, powering the mobility of tomorrow.”
01
destream: Building the financial backbone of the creator economy