Urban mining startup Metastable Materials raises pre-seed round led by founders of Log9 Materials

Bengaluru-based urban mining startup Metastable Materials has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from a clutch of angel investors and venture capital firms. The pre-seed round was led by Akshay Singhal and Kartik Hajela, Co-Founders of Log9 Materials – an EV battery-technology company. Archana Priyadarshini – General Partner at PointOne was also one of the lead investors in the round, which additionally witnessed participation from Sanjiv Rangrass (Ex-Group Head at ITC Limited), among other angels. Prior to this fundraise, the startup was bootstrapped.

Metastable Materials is an urban mining startup working on 100% chemical-free treatment of Li-ion batteries, done for the first time in the history of metals extraction globally, said a company release. Their processes are designed to minimize waste and improve efficiency. The release further added that the battery treatment methodology used by Metastable Materials also significantly reduces capital expenditure and operational expenditure in comparison to the conventional battery recycling practices, along with showcasing a recovery rate of over 90% for the constituent materials.

Metastable Materials will be utilizing the amount raised to build India’s LiB (Lithium-ion battery) supply chain infra by extracting elements from end-of-life batteries. This will include scaling up Metastable’s patented process and developing corresponding supply chains. In addition, the amount raised will go towards team, operations and infrastructure expansion for Metastable.

Speaking on the fundraise, Shubham Vishvakarma, Founder, Metastable Materials said, “We are delighted and proud to announce our first-ever funding– which will bolster Metastable Materials’ capabilities to efficiently extract a plethora of valuable materials out of Li-ion batteries and then distribute them to the markets for application across various industries. We at Metastable are pioneering a first-of-its-kind, chemical-free technology and system that in an eco-friendly manner can extract a wide range of recycled materials from Lithium-ion batteries, in order to provide a sustainable alternative to freshly mined metals and with the end-goal of integrating with existing global supply chains. This fundraising will certainly act as a catalyst in augmenting our efforts in the near future.”

Kartik Hajela, Co-Founder, Log9 Materials said, “Urban mining will not only help in reducing the burden for newly-mined materials from Earth like Lithium etc., but can also be an important piece in reducing India’s global dependency for raw materials for batteries. Process innovation is very critical to scale urban mining; and to this end, Metastable’s proprietary process can help bring scale to this sector sustainably.”