Ascend Elements Raises $162M for Kentucky Battery Plant
Venture capital firms Just Climate, Clearvision Ventures, and IRONGREY participated in a $162 million funding round for Ascend Elements, a Westborough, MA-based manufacturer of recycled battery materials.
The round brings the total raised to $704 million, which includes a $542 million investment led by Decarbonization Partners, Temasek and Qatar Investment Authority in September 2023.
Led by CEO Mike O’Kronley, the company intends to use the proceeds for a new 1-million square foot sustainable lithium-ion plant in Hopkinsville, KY.
According to the company, the project, Apex 1, anticipated to open in early 2025, will be North America’s first sustainable cathode precursor (pCAM) manufacturing facility, producing sustainable pCAM and cathode active materials (CAM) for up to 750,000 electric vehicles per year. The project is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“We are backing a technology that transforms spent lithium-ion batteries into critical materials used in the creation of new batteries. With its first pCAM facility in construction in the U.S., Ascend Elements has the potential to unlock the supply of critical battery materials to accelerate the roll out of electric vehicles,” said Aruna Ramsamy, a managing director at Just Climate.
Pictured: Apex 1 EV battery materials manufacturing facility in Hopkinsville, KY.