Funding will support the commercialization of GGT’s patent pending GraphPure™ and GraphRenew™ technologies
Montreal, Canada, October 3, 2023
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 GraphPure™ technology to transform NFG into LiB grade graphite. Earlier this year, GGT received a $0.5 million grant from PRIMA Quebec for piloting its GraphRenew™ 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 GraphPure™ and GraphRenew™.
“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. “GraphPure™ and GraphRenew™ 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 GraphPure™ and GraphRenew™” 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.”
À propos de Technologies Graphite Vertes
TGV est une organisation spécialisée dans les technologies propres. Sa mission consiste à déployer GraphPure™ et GraphRenew™ à l'échelle mondiale afin de produire du graphite de qualité batterie de la manière la plus rentable et la plus durable possible, dans le but de combler rapidement le déficit d'approvisionnement en graphite et de favoriser l'adoption des véhicules électriques. Avec une demande prévue pour le graphite de qualité LiB - stimulée par l'adoption des véhicules électriques - qui devrait croître à un taux annuel composé de 18 %, avec une demande prévue de 2 millions de tonnes par an d'ici 2030 et de plus de 4 millions de tonnes d'ici 2040, cela représente une opportunité de marché de 55 milliards de dollars. Conscients de la nécessité de sécuriser la chaîne d'approvisionnement en minéraux essentiels pour l'adoption des véhicules électriques, les gouvernements canadien, américain et européen ont débloqué des milliards de dollars de financement. Le modèle commercial de TGV consiste à être l'opérateur et le concédant de licence de GraphPure™ et GraphRenew™. Avec le soutien de ses partenaires industriels et de ses investisseurs, TGV est en passe de devenir la solution mondiale de référence pour la production de graphite de qualité batterie à partir de graphite naturel en paillettes extrait des mines et de batteries lithium-ion recyclées.
À propos de BDC Capital
BDC Capital est la division d'investissement de BDC, la banque des entrepreneurs du Canada. Avec plus de 6 milliards de dollars sous gestion, BDC Capital agit à titre de partenaire stratégique auprès des entreprises les plus innovantes du pays. Elle offre aux entreprises une gamme complète de solutions de financement, allant des investissements de démarrage au capital de croissance, en passant par les solutions de transition de propriété, afin d'appuyer les entrepreneurs canadiens qui ont l'ambition de se démarquer sur la scène mondiale. Visitez le site bdc.ca/capital.
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Technologies Graphite Vertes
BDC Capital