Vision Blue raises $61M in hot battery materials market

Vision Blue Resources, an investment fund targeting battery and technical materials, raised more than $61 million for its latest fund.

Why it matters: Materials used in EV batteries are spawning a global gold rush among private investors.

Details: Vision Blue Resources, which is located in the U.K., raised $61.2 million from 13 investors, per its Form D filed Tuesday.

Zoom in: The investment fund was founded in 2020 with a focus on investing in mining operations before expanding into EV-specific materials investments.

• It backed Ferro-Alloy Resources, a U.K.-based vanadium producer, via a $12.6 million PIPE investment in 2021, per PitchBook.
• Vision Blue Resources also invested $15 million in Sinova Global, an Edmonton, Canada-based silicon and quartz provider, per PitchBook.

State of play: The surge in EV production is driving a mad dash to own the materials required for EV batteries.

• In the U.S., the Department of Energy Loan Programs Office is backing domestic EV battery production facilities and materials projects left and right, including a $102.1 million investment in a Syrah Technologies plant and a $2.5 billion loan to a GM-LG joint battery project.
• More recently, battery company Redwood Materials invested $3.5 billion in a new South Carolina recycling and manufacturing campus that will produce enough components to power 1 million electric vehicles, Axios' Joann Muller reports.