- 6K, a leader in the production of sustainable advanced materials for energy storage and additive manufacturing powders, announced it raised $51 million in Series C funding. These are the details.
6K — a leader in the production of sustainable advanced materials for energy storage and additive manufacturing powders — announced that it has closed a $51 million Series C financing round. And with this investment, 6K will complete its Battery Development Center of Excellence, adding 33,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art product development space and doubling its 6K Energy team.
The funding round will also enable a tripling of production capacity for 3D metal powders at its 6K Additive division, increase the portfolio of powder product offerings, and expand its commercial sales activities globally. And the funding round was led by Volta Energy Technologies, joined by new investors Catalus Capital and S Cap/Prithvi Ventures, and existing investors Anzu Partners, Launch Capital, Material Impact, and RKS Ventures.
6K’s goal is to provide a solution for global decarbonization in the production of performance materials, critical to manufacturing and production infrastructure. And the UniMelt plasma production system is a revolutionary high volume production process, producing advanced performance materials in as little as two seconds versus two-three days.
The UniMelt system displaces costly and wasteful legacy manufacturing approaches with a lower-cost, smaller footprint production technology, providing a path to meeting the cost demands the market requires. And 6K’s UniMelt platform offers multifaceted sustainability benefits like no other material production platform in the world. For example, if a legacy battery cathode production plant was replaced with 6K’s UniMelt platform, 100% of solid waste and wastewater would be eliminated, energy usage and greenhouse gas generation would be reduced by up to 70%, and water usage would be decreased by 90%.
The UniMelt production process can produce products as varied as batteries materials for electric vehicles, semiconductor materials, 3D printing powders, phosphors, advanced ceramics, and electronic materials, etc.
KEY QUOTES:
“This round of capital is a validation of 6K’s model to replace wasteful legacy production technologies with the UniMelt platform, enter scaled production, meet customer needs, move toward profitability, and transform industries. We are joined by world-class investors who are aligned with our vision to transform the way performance materials are produced. And in doing so, we are teaming to solve critical needs of the US and the planet, addressing climate change, supply chain security, and reducing the demand on our fragile and limited resources.”
— Aaron Bent, CEO of 6K
“Our investment strategy focuses on technologies that bring a positive impact to the environment and contribute to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy on the grid. Not only does 6K and its UniMelt platform align perfectly to our investment strategy, but the company is well poised to impact advanced material manufacturing for electric vehicle batteries with a solution that changes the dynamic of sustainability in the supply chain for battery materials.”
— Zander Arkin, Volta’s Chief Investment Officer who joins as a 6K Board Director alongside board luminaries like Congressman Joe Kennedy III and Mark Little, previously CTO at GE.
