Altilium Raises £4M From Marubeni to Build the UK's Largest EV Battery Recycling Facility in Teesside

January 8, 2025

Altilium, a Plymouth-based clean technology company specialising in the recycling of end-of-life electric vehicle batteries, has announced a £4 million strategic investment from Japan's Marubeni Corporation as part of its ongoing Series B round. The capital will fund engineering studies, land acquisition, and planning and permitting for Altilium's flagship project in Teesside, where the company intends to build the UK's largest EV battery recycling facility. Marubeni and Altilium had previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2023 committing both parties to develop a closed-loop EV battery recycling supply chain in the UK, making this investment the conversion of that strategic alignment into equity. The Teesside investment follows a $12 million Series A led by SQM Lithium Ventures, the corporate venture arm of the world's largest lithium producer.

The electrification of transport is creating a growing wave of end-of-life battery materials that, without the right recycling infrastructure, will become an environmental liability and a missed economic opportunity. The UK is forecast to face significant supply shortfalls of battery-grade critical minerals from 2026 onwards as domestic gigafactory capacity scales up, yet remains almost entirely dependent on imported virgin materials — lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite — sourced primarily from outside Europe. This dependency creates both supply security risk and a significant carbon cost embedded in every new battery cell produced.

Altilium's proprietary EcoCathode hydrometallurgical process recovers over 95% of the key battery metals from end-of-life cells and production scrap, transforming them back into battery-grade materials — including cathode active materials (CAM) and metal sulphates — that can re-enter the manufacturing supply chain. Independently validated by Imperial College London and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, the process delivers a 74% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to conventional mining. Altilium's recycled materials have been tested in automotive-grade battery cells and approved for gigafactory-scale trials, including a landmark collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in 2024.

The planned Teesside plant will have the capacity to process battery waste from 150,000 EVs annually, yielding 30,000 metric tonnes of low-carbon CAM — enough to meet an estimated 20% of the UK's CAM requirement by 2030. The company already operates a pilot plant in Plymouth, which represents the UK's only functioning EV battery recycling facility, and is building a mini-commercial plant, ACT 3, also in Plymouth, as an intermediate step toward full commercial scale.

Marubeni brings four decades of involvement in the battery materials industry and has been expanding into battery recycling markets in the United States. CEO Kamran Mahdavi described the investment as strengthening Altilium's position as a leader in sustainable battery materials and advancing a circular economy for the UK battery industry. A £2.5 million co-investment from Mizuho Bank was also completed as part of the Series B, adding a second major Japanese institutional partner to Altilium's cap table alongside SQM, Marubeni, and Mizuho, as well as Innovate UK grants totalling £5 million.

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