Local battery-recycling startup raises $62M to build its first full-scale plant

Volta Loop, the battery-recycling company founded in a university lab four years ago, has closed a $62 million Series B round to build its first commercial plant on the city's east side.

The round was led by Northwind Capital with participation from two automakers the company declined to name.

Chief executive Hannah Kim said the plant will process 20,000 tons of spent electric-vehicle packs a year and recover 95% of the lithium, nickel and cobalt they contain.

'Most recyclers burn the packs and recover the metals from the ash,' Kim said. 'We dissolve them. It is slower, but it is cleaner and we get far more back.'

The company has signed a ten-year offtake agreement with a cathode manufacturer in Ohio, which Kim described as 'the deal that made the plant financeable.'

Construction will begin in January and the plant is expected to employ 140 people when it reaches full capacity in 2028.

Volta Loop was one of three finalists for the state's clean-manufacturing grant last year and received $8 million.