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Battery recycling startup Ascend Elements topped up its Series D with $162 million as it races to complete its first large-scale recycled battery processing plant.

Why it matters: The infusion brings the 12-month funding total to $704 million.

Details: The raise drew Just Climate, the venture firm launched by Al Gore's Generation Investment Management, as well as Clearvision Ventures, and Irongrey.

It adds to the $542 million that Ascend announced last fall, led by Decarbonization Partners, Temasek and Qatar Investment Authority.

Of note: Ascend was also selected to receive $480 million in two matching funds from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Catch up fast: Ascend Elements is among a handful of companies working to establish a new manufacturing sector in the U.S.: making battery materials from recycled lithium-ion batteries.

What's next: The startup, based in Westborough, Mass., is building a sprawling 1-million-square-foot plant in Kentucky that it's calling Apex 1.

Ascend is aiming to open the site in early 2025. It will produce what are known as precursor and cathode active materials for electric vehicle batteries.

💭 Our thought bubble: From panels to interviews, investors and bankers tend to discourage founders from using venture dollars to fund construction — that giving up equity is an expensive way to build a factory.

But with banks still reluctant to back first-of-a-kind plants like the one Ascend is building, venture investment is often the only source of capital available these days. DOE matching funds help here, too.

Ascend Elements raises $162M to fund recycled battery materials plant

The company is racing to build a big site in Kentucky.

An overhead shot of Ascend's plant under construction on a muddy plot of land in Kentucky.

The company is building a large plant in Kentucky. Photo: Courtesy of Ascend Elements

Manufacturing

Battery recycling startup Ascend Elements <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="topped up" data-vars-click-url="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ascend-elements-raises-additional-162-million-to-build-sustainable-lithium-ion-battery-materials-in-united-states-302065357.html?tc=eml_cleartime" data-vars-content-id="62affcf7-36fe-4d8a-aaf7-91a0a6943a99" data-vars-headline="Ascend Elements raises $162M to fund recycled battery materials plant" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ascend-elements-raises-additional-162-million-to-build-sustainable-lithium-ion-battery-materials-in-united-states-302065357.html?tc=eml_cleartime" target="_blank">topped up</a> its Series D with $162 million as it races to complete its first large-scale recycled battery processing plant.Why it matters: The infusion brings the 12-month funding total to $704 million.

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Ascend Elements raises $162M to fund recycled battery materials plant

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