Technology
As demand for lithium explodes, battery recycling startup Tozero accelerates scale with initial $11.7 million

TozeroA Munich-based startup that recovers helpful raw materials from recycled lithium-ion batteries is preparing to scale. The startup just closed an oversubscribed €11 million (roughly $11.7 million) seed round to scale up production by constructing its first industrial-scale implementation facility (first of its kind, or FOAK).
Currently, Tozero’s pilot plant processes nine tons of used lithium-ion batteries a day, however the startup is aiming for unlimited capability in what it hopes can be just just a few years of scaling up its operations.
“Other competitors are raising much more money to get into an industrial plant. But because our process and our technology are so lean and efficient, we don’t need more than that to achieve our first industrial deployment or what the investing world would call a “first-of-its-kind” factory. This is what we intend to build,” co-founder and CEO Dr. Sarah Fleischer (pictured above, left) told TechCrunch.
The startup claims that after the Tozero process gains industrial speed and functionality, there can be no hard limits on what it may well achieve when it comes to battery recycling, so long as it has access to waste streams.
“The goal of FOAK is actually to get into the actual, continuous production – manufacturing – of the product,” added co-founder and managing director, Dr. Ksenija Milicevic Neumann.
“After that, unlimited, infinite, exponential growth will be possible,” Fleischer said. “Our idea is to independently run plants around the world. We’re focusing on Germany, Europe, and then moving on to North America. But once we get to this plant (FOAK), we will be able to expand Tozero into multiple dimensions around the world. This will therefore be a key milestone in the next phase of growth.”
The startup pointed to forecasts that global demand for lithium is it is anticipated to quadruple to three.1 million metric tons by 2030, driven by the rapid uptake of electrical vehicles and growing demand for large-scale renewable energy batteries. By comparison, lithium mining produced just 180,000 metric tons last 12 months, so recycling can have a key role to play in meeting this demand.
The EU Battery Directive will even introduce an obligation to get better not less than 80% of lithium from batteries by 2031.
“The technology works… So the core part of our technology is already in place. Now we just have to industrialize it,” Fleischer said.
Eliminating bottlenecks in recycling
The startup seeks to eliminate bottlenecks in lithium battery recycling with: water-based carbonation a recovery process that’s more environmentally friendly than conventional pyrometallurgy (smelting). Its lithium recovery method doesn’t involve using harsh acids, as would be the case with other battery recycling processes.
Tozero claims its method also leads to significantly lower emissions – 70% lower – in comparison with mining.
“Commodity security is, in a sense, national security,” Fleischer said. “There are so many underdeveloped industries in Europe that are starving for this material because Europe does not produce lithium carbonate; we import. If you look at (European Commission President) Ursula von der Leyen, she states that we import over 97% of lithium carbonate from China. We are therefore highly dependent on the Eastern Front and the mining industry.”
Access to black pulp, a by-product of the mechanical recycling of lithium batteries processed by Tozero, shouldn’t be restricted across borders. In terms of competition, Fleischer describes the market as a “completely blue ocean market” by which battery recycling efforts are largely focused elsewhere. The startup says it may well use black pulp from any style of lithium-ion batteries in order that waste streams may be mixed.
“Lithium will always be there (recyclable batteries), but other elements change – with innovations in battery production – so we don’t care if there is nickel, if there is, for example, a few percent less or more cobalt, but lithium is always present,” said Milicevic Neumann.
Tozero also recovers graphite from blackmass waste streams. The startup says its give attention to these two key raw materials is a “key point of difference” in comparison with other battery recycling players.
The give attention to lithium can also be why the startup’s customers are beating their strategy to its doors.
“Customers are just storming the place,” Fleischer said, stating that market demand is “far too high” for many industrial applications in Europe. Tozero has “over a billion dollars worth of clients in the pipeline who are interested in our material,” she said.
Tozero has delivered the primary batch of high-purity processed lithium to business customers this Aprilnine months after opening pilot facility in Germany.
The need for speed
Tozero was only founded in 2022, so how has it achieved something that larger players within the industry have seemingly didn’t do over the previous few a long time? The startup says it comes right down to focus, speed and inventive pondering.
Speed requires creativity when constructing hardware, Fleischer argued, explaining that the most important challenge for hardware startups is the delivery time of the vital hardware to scale.
“We break things quickly, learn, iterate and improve at a very rapid pace — probably along the lines of Elon Musk’s SpaceX principle — we just build things and see (what happens) until something breaks, we learn from it, iterate and we refine into very fast sprints, which is very unfamiliar to hardware companies,” Fleischer said.
“I would say we protect ourselves through speed,” she added, confirming that Tozero’s approach relies on “process innovations” which can be protected as trade secrets, although not patented. “The entire process, stages or parameters, sequence, method of performing specific activities, is completely our recipe for ‘Coca Cola’ (trade secret),” she added.
Tozero believes it might expand its approach to get better other raw materials that may be used as an “energy source”, although it might not specify what materials it might add later.
The overarching mission is to attain zero waste of key raw materials. “We are quite aware of (the broader challenges of decarbonizing in a sustainable way),” Milicevic Neumann told TechCrunch. “That’s why we also want to focus on recycling some other materials in the future.”
But if it wants to attain real impact, would not Tozero must license its trade secrets to others? They each say they have not fully selected their approach yet, but prefer to retain control of the method as they scale – although they’re open to partnerships.
“On the operational side, we believe that we can only truly deliver the highest quality if we operate the plants ourselves,” Fleischer said. “This can also apply to partners. I mean, we’re open to it. So I don’t want to say yes or no to licensing. Partnerships are great in terms of scale if they are helpful, but we will operate our own plants.”
Tozero’s seed round was led by NordicNinja, with participation from recent investors In-Q-Tel (an American strategic public-private fund), Honda and global infrastructure engineering giant JGC Group. The startup’s €3.5 million pre-season round, closed about two years ago, was led by Berlin-based Atlantic Labs. So far, the Tozero project has raised €17 million, which incorporates a €2.5 million grant from the EU’s research and development support body, the European Innovation Council.
“Tozero’s innovative approach to battery recycling is exactly what Europe needs to secure key supplies in the global electrification race, and Japan would like to cooperate,” Shin Nikkuni, co-founder and managing partner at NordicNinja, said in an announcement. “Sarah and Ksenija, two exceptional founders, have the knowledge and desire to transform the landscape towards sustainable battery solutions. We are excited to support the tozero team as they scale their technology and commercial operations and contribute to a more sustainable and independent energy future for all.”
Technology
Microsoft Nadella sata chooses chatbots on the podcasts

While the general director of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, says that he likes podcasts, perhaps he didn’t take heed to them anymore.
That the treat is approaching at the end longer profile Bloomberg NadellaFocusing on the strategy of artificial intelligence Microsoft and its complicated relations with Opeli. To illustrate how much she uses Copilot’s AI assistant in her day by day life, Nadella said that as a substitute of listening to podcasts, she now sends transcription to Copilot, after which talks to Copilot with the content when driving to the office.
In addition, Nadella – who jokingly described her work as a “E -Mail driver” – said that it consists of a minimum of 10 custom agents developed in Copilot Studio to sum up E -Mailes and news, preparing for meetings and performing other tasks in the office.
It seems that AI is already transforming Microsoft in a more significant way, and programmers supposedly the most difficult hit in the company’s last dismissals, shortly after Nadella stated that the 30% of the company’s code was written by AI.
(Tagstotransate) microsoft
Technology
The planned Openai data center in Abu Dhabi would be greater than Monaco

Opeli is able to help in developing a surprising campus of the 5-gigawatt data center in Abu Dhabi, positioning the corporate because the fundamental tenant of anchor in what can grow to be considered one of the biggest AI infrastructure projects in the world, in accordance with the brand new Bloomberg report.
Apparently, the thing would include a tremendous 10 square miles and consumed power balancing five nuclear reactors, overshadowing the prevailing AI infrastructure announced by OpenAI or its competitors. (Opeli has not yet asked TechCrunch’s request for comment, but in order to be larger than Monaco in retrospect.)
The ZAA project, developed in cooperation with the G42-Konglomerate with headquarters in Abu Zabi- is an element of the ambitious Stargate OpenAI project, Joint Venture announced in January, where in January could see mass data centers around the globe supplied with the event of AI.
While the primary Stargate campus in the United States – already in Abilene in Texas – is to realize 1.2 gigawatts, this counterpart from the Middle East will be more than 4 times.
The project appears among the many wider AI between the USA and Zea, which were a few years old, and annoyed some legislators.
OpenAI reports from ZAA come from 2023 Partnership With G42, the pursuit of AI adoption in the Middle East. During the conversation earlier in Abu Dhabi, the final director of Opeli, Altman himself, praised Zea, saying: “He spoke about artificial intelligence Because it was cool before. “
As in the case of a big a part of the AI world, these relationships are … complicated. Established in 2018, G42 is chaired by Szejk Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security advisor of ZAA and the younger brother of this country. His embrace by OpenAI raised concerns at the top of 2023 amongst American officials who were afraid that G42 could enable the Chinese government access advanced American technology.
These fears focused on “G42”Active relationships“With Blalisted entities, including Huawei and Beijing Genomics Institute, in addition to those related to people related to Chinese intelligence efforts.
After pressure from American legislators, CEO G42 told Bloomberg At the start of 2024, the corporate modified its strategy, saying: “All our Chinese investments that were previously collected. For this reason, of course, we no longer need any physical presence in China.”
Shortly afterwards, Microsoft – the fundamental shareholder of Opeli together with his own wider interests in the region – announced an investment of $ 1.5 billion in G42, and its president Brad Smith joined the board of G42.
(Tagstransate) Abu dhabi
Technology
Redpoint collects USD 650 million 3 years after the last large fund at an early stage

Redpoint Ventures, an organization based in San Francisco, which is a few quarter of a century, collected $ 650 million at an early stage, in keeping with A regulatory notification.
The latest RedPoint fund corresponds to the size of its previous fund, which was collected barely lower than three years ago. On the market where many enterprises reduce their capital allegations, this cohesion may indicate that limited partners are relatively satisfied with its results.
The company’s early stage strategy is managed by 4 managing partners: Alex Bard (pictured above), Satish Dharmraraj, Annie Kadavy and Eric Brescia, who joined the company in 2021 after he served as the operational director of Githuba for nearly three years.
The last outstanding investments of the RedPoint team at an early stage include AI Coding Pool Pool, which was founded by the former partner Redpoint and CTO GitHub Jason Warner, distributed laboratories of SQL database programmers and Platform Management Platform Platform Levelpath.
A multi -stage company also conducts a development strategy led by Logan Barlett, Jacob Effron, Elliot Geidt and Scott Raney partners. Last 12 months, Redpoint raised its fifth growth fund at USD 740 million, which is a small increase in the USD 725 million fund closed three years earlier.
The recent RedPoint outputs include the next insurance, which was sold for $ 2.6 billion in March, Tastemada Startup Media Travel -utar -Media was enriched by Wonder for $ 90 million, and the takeover of Hashicorp $ 6.4 billion by IBM.
Redpoint didn’t answer the request for comment.
(Tagstranslate) Early Stage Venture Capital (T) Basenside (T) Redpoint Venture Partners
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