SiTration, a materials recovery company that is serving the mining and metals industries, announced it has raised $11.8 million in seed capital. This funding round was led by 2150 with participation from BHP Ventures, Extantia, and Orion Industrial Ventures. And previous investors Azolla Ventures and MIT-affiliated E14 Fund also participated in the oversubscribed round.
This funding round will scale the company’s novel solution for recovering critical metals and minerals and deploy pilot systems with commercial partners.
Launched as a spinoff from research conducted at MIT, SiTration is addressing the demand for critical materials needed to manufacture technologies that are key to the clean energy transition, including electric motors, wind turbines, and batteries. And the company’s solution lowers both the cost and the resource intensity of extracting and recycling materials, contributing to the overall push towards a circular economy.
SiTration’s patented porous silicon membrane technology offers chemical-free and energy-efficient extraction and recycling, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and localized pollution from traditional material sourcing. The company’s work has attracted the attention of industry, most notably through a partnership with Rio Tinto to valorize and remediate mining waste streams. This partnership emphasizes SiTration’s pivotal role in catalyzing a green revolution within the mining sector.
Beyond transforming clean energy material sourcing, the company is extending its membrane platform to metals refining and lithium-ion battery recycling, further solidifying its commitment to sustainability across a wide range of industries.
KEY QUOTES:
“The magnitude of the challenge presented by the need to bolster the critical materials supply chain is clear. There is a major missing link between the clean energy technologies we so desperately need and the sourcing of the materials that are at their core. Our solution can create a cleaner, more equitable, and more profitable critical materials supply chain across multiple industries, all with a single technology.”
- Dr. Brendan Smith, CEO and co-founder of SiTration
“The key to our membrane technology lies in the combination of durability and the selective extraction performance that is unparalleled among existing solutions. Additionally, the membrane is produced via a streamlined, scalable, and economic manufacturing process, allowing for its deployment in large-scale industrial applications.”
- Professor Jeffrey Grossman, co-founder of SiTration and professor at MIT’sDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering
“The need for breakthrough technology that addresses the staggering shortage of critical metals the world is facing as we transition to a clean, electrified energy system is real. With SiTration, we believe we have found the most promising technology and an incredible team to take it to commercial scale in global mining and in the emerging battery recycling industry.”
- Jacob Bro, Partner at 2150
