Funding will support the commercialization of GGT’s patent pending GraphPureTM and GraphRenewTM technologies.
Montreal, Canada, October 3, 2023 /Private Capital Newswire (pcNewswire)/ – Green Graphite Technologies Inc. (“GGT”), a leader in commercializing a cost-effective and eco-friendly process to transform Natural Flake Graphite (NFG) and recycled graphite into lithium-ion battery (LiB) grade graphite for electric vehicles, has closed a CAD$2.1 million SEED Funding round co-led by BDC Capital’s Climate Tech Fund and the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, with participation from a private investor.
“Closing this SEED round with such prestigious and experienced investors is a major milestone on our journey to rapidly become the global solution for producing battery grade graphite from mined natural flake graphite and from secondary sources such as recycled lithium-ion batteries,” said Gillian Holcroft, co-Founder and CEO of GGT.
GGT’s technology development roadmap has advanced rapidly since the company’s creation in August 2021. In September 2022, GGT announced that it received a $1.1 million grant from SDTC to advance the development of its GraphPureTM technology to transform NFG into LiB grade graphite. Earlier this year, GGT received a $0.5 million grant from PRIMA Quebec for piloting its GraphRenewTM technology that transforms spent graphite from LiB recycling operations into battery grade graphite. This SEED funding will be used to expand GGT’s core team and support scale up efforts for both GraphPureTM and GraphRenewTM.
“It’s well known that electric vehicles (EV) use lithium-ion batteries, but most people don’t know that these batteries require high-purity graphite to function,” said Kevin Watson, CTO and co-Founder. “GraphPureTM and GraphRenewTM are innovative, patent pending, purification processes that include efficient on-site regeneration of reagents. These technologies do not produce any liquid effluent and essentially zero solid waste.”
Graphite miners and battery recyclers will have the option of adopting a graphite purification technology that will enable our society to meet the ever-increasing demands for LiB powered vehicles. With the success of this project, Canada will be seen as a leader in developing a cost effective and clean technology and ultimately eliminate the need for global LiB producers to source graphite exclusively from China, currently the only player in this market.
“Green Graphite Technologies developed a much cleaner process to purify graphite, one of the key components of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Solving this problem is crucial to the energy transition and to helping Canada reach its net zero objective,” said Nicole Leite, Principal, Climate Tech Fund at BDC Capital. “BDC is built to help entrepreneurs rise to the challenges of our time. The demand for lithium-ion grade graphite will only keep increasing, with a projected global demand of 2 million tonnes per year by 2030. Our Climate Tech Fund was designed to enable the scale up of this type of impactful, innovative technologies which will lead to Canada’s future prosperity.”
“In order for Canada to achieve its emissions targets, it will need to continue to support and scale early-stage novel technologies like GGT’s GraphPureTM and GraphRenewTM” said Meahgan Seagrave, Executive Director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada. “As Canada’s only green chemistry accelerator, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, through its Sustainable Chemistry Alliance Investment Fund, is focused on identifying, validating, and investing in technologies that will allow Canadian and global industries to decarbonize while positioning Canada as a leader in clean, green technology development. Thanks to this crucial investment support, GGT will become instrumental in supporting Canada’s LiB industry while reducing its reliance on unsafe and environmentally damaging foreign sourced materials.”
About Green Graphite Technologies
GGT is a cleantech organization. Its mission is to deploy GraphPureTM and GraphRenewTM globally to produce battery grade graphite in the most cost-effective and sustainable manner to rapidly address the graphite supply gap and enable the adoption of electric vehicles. With the forecast demand for LiB-grade graphite – driven by the uptake of EVs – growing at a CAGR of 18%, with a projected demand of 2 million tonnes annually by 2030 and over 4 million tonnes by 2040, this represents a $55 billion market opportunity. Recognizing the need to secure the critical minerals supply chain for EV adoption, Canadian, US and European governments have unlocked billions of dollars of funding. GGT’s business model is to be an operator and licensor of GraphPureTM and GraphRenewTM. With its industrial partners and investor support GGT is on track to becoming the leading global solution for producing battery grade graphite from mined natural flake graphite and from recycled lithium-ion batteries.
www.greengraphitetech.com
About BDC Capital
BDC Capital is the investment arm of BDC, Canada’s bank for entrepreneurs. With over $6 billion under management, BDC Capital serves as a strategic partner to the country’s most innovative firms. It offers businesses a full spectrum of capital, from seed investments to growth equity as well as ownership transition solutions, supporting Canadian entrepreneurs who have the ambition to stand out on the world stage. Visit bdc.ca/capital.
Media Contact
Green Graphite Technologies
Gillian Holcroft
gillian@greengraphitetech.com
BDC Capital
Media Relations
mediainfo@bdc.ca
