BeeCycle

beecyc.com ↗ ·Caparroso ·Other

BeeCycle is a Navarra-based company building an industrial recycling plant for lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. Its plant in Caparroso (Navarra) uses technology supplied by South Korea's SungEel HiTech. It is designed to process the batteries of about 25,000 cars a year and to produce up to 10,000 tonnes a year of black mass, which contains lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper and graphite. BeeCycle was set up in 2023 by a Spanish-Korean consortium of BeePlanet Factory, SungEel HiTech, Samsung C&T, Metales de Navarra and Truck&Wheel Logistics, with the regional public investment company Sodena as a partner. The project involves an investment of €18.5 million, including €1.6 million from the Government of Navarra, and is expected to create around 70 jobs.

Founded

2023

Total funds raised

—

Rounds

Investors

SectorsBattery recycling, Circular economy, Electric mobility, Critical raw materials Start-up MapEnergy & Climate › Waste valorisation & biomaterials

Suggest a correction

Founders

No names on record yet.

Global models 5

Redwood Materials

United States · www.redwoodmaterials.com ↗

Collects end-of-life EV and consumer lithium-ion batteries at industrial plants in Nevada and turns them into recovered battery metals, which it sells to cell makers and automakers, the same model as BeeCycle's Caparroso plant; total is the ~$2B equity the company stated in 2023 plus its $425M Series E of 2025–26.

$2.4BComparable

Ascend Elements

United States · ascendelements.com ↗

Runs large plants that shred spent EV batteries into black mass and recover lithium, nickel and cobalt for battery-material buyers, matching BeeCycle's recycling model and adding its own step to make new cathode material; total is the sum of its equity rounds ($20M + $70M Series B, $200M Series C, $542M + $162M Series D).

$1.0BComparable

Cirba Solutions

United States · www.cirbasolutions.com ↗

Collects, sorts and processes EV and industrial lithium-ion batteries into black mass and metal salts at North American plants, the same model as BeeCycle, and like BeeCycle it is backed by strategic partners (EQT Infrastructure $245M, Marubeni-led $50M).

$295MComparable

cylib

Germany · www.cylib.de ↗

Building an industrial-scale plant in Germany that recycles EV lithium-ion batteries and recovers lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese for European automakers, the closest European venture-backed peer to BeeCycle (backers include Porsche Ventures and Bosch Ventures).

$80MComparable

Princeton NuEnergy

United States · pnecycle.com ↗

Building a full-scale plant that recycles spent EV and consumer lithium-ion batteries and sells the recovered material back into the battery supply chain, with strategic backers such as Samsung Venture Investment and Honda, though it uses direct cathode recycling rather than black-mass hydrometallurgy; total is the $30M Series A plus the $7.9M seed and angel round, excluding $18M of DOE grants.

$38MComparable

In the same niche 22 others

Most funded firstSee all 23 in Waste valorisation & biomaterials →

Benviro

Santa Perpètua de Mogoda

+16 more →

Investors 1

Open 1 in the directory as list →

Sodena

sodena.com

Public lender Spain

Funding rounds 0

·1 not counted

Not counted (1)

Not counted in totals

Date	Round	Amount	Lead
2023-10-16	Grant	approximately €1.6M	Lead not disclosed +1 more

News 2

Open as list →

Published	Article
2024-09-02	BeeCycle announces 70 jobs and opening of its battery recycling plant by 2026 ↗ Invest In Navarra 2024-09-02
2023-06-26	Navarra will have its first electric vehicle battery reuse factory by 2025 ↗ Invest in Navarra 2023-06-26