Tesla Partner Redwood Materials Could Reach $5B Valuation

Battery recycling company and Tesla partner Redwood Materials is currently in discussion to raise as much as $700 million in funding. If all goes according to plan, the funding would put the company’s valuation at nearly $5 billion ahead of the company’s plans to construct a new factory in Nevada — though it isn’t yet a done deal.

Above: A Tesla Model X (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

Redwood Materials could be set to raise another $700 million in an upcoming round of funding, though the deal has not yet been finalized, according to people familiar with the matter (via Financial Times). The battery recycling company also declined to comment, although the people said the talks were already entering advanced stages, while not being finished.

Founded by Tesla Co-Founder JB Straubel, Redwood Materials was established in 2017 to help create a circular battery supply chain. To do so, the company recycles battery materials such as lithium to help reduce the need for mining. With U.S. President Joe Biden aiming to have half of all new vehicles sold be electric by 2030, the market for lithium and recycled batteries is expected to grow significantly.

In the past, the company has had backers such as Fidelity, Baillie Gifford and T Rowe Price, and many of its current investors are expected to be a part of this new funding round.Other current investors in Redwood Materials include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and others still.

In 2021, Redwood Materials raised over $700 million with a valuation of about $3.7 billion. Earlier this year, the company also earned conditional approval for a U.S. Department of Energy loan of $2 billion, also set to help develop the Reno, Nevada-area plant. The company has also shared plans to invest over $3.5 billion into a plant on over 600 acres of land outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

The factory in Nevada is expected to be Redwood’s first major plant, and will be dedicated to taking batteries and production scraps at the end of their lifespans and turning them into materials that can be used to produce electric vehicles. Eventually, the company forecasts the factory producing enough batteries for over a million EVs per year. Tesla also has a Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada which sends its battery waste straight to a nearby Redwood Materials facility.

Straubel is credited with co-founding Tesla in 2004, just a year following the company’s initial incorporation. He served as the automaker’s Chief Technology Officer for 15 years, and as Financial Times points out, he was a crucial part of the development of Tesla’s powertrains and its early concepts of the Gigafactory. In May, he was elected to serve as an independent director of the Tesla board of directors.

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