On Friday, EnergyX, an Austin, Texas-based firm that develops technologies for sustainable direct lithium extraction (DLE) and solid-battery energy storage systems announced a major funding milestone. The firm has raised $20 million for the year to date, making EnergyX the highest valued direct lithium extraction technology company on the market. Investors and partners in the company’s Series A venture round included Obsidian Acquisition Partners, Helios Capital, and the University of Texas.
“EnergyX has been diligently working towards creating a cleaner lithium space in conjunction with other global leaders,” said EnergyX founder and CEO Teague Egan, in an official statement on the funding milestone. “We are all very excited to continue that focus with the additional support through this Series A funding. There is a major oncoming shift across the entire battery material supply chain including mining and materials, anode/cathode, and cell assembly, and EnergyX plans to be at the epicenter for decades to come.”
In 2020, EnergyX announced a pilot partnership with Australian listed miner Orocobre Limited–which last month announced a $4 billion merger with Galaxy Resources to create the world’s third largest lithium producer– to develop cleaner, more efficient lithium extraction methods. EnergyX and Orocobre plan to deploy their pilots in the near future.
EnergyX notes that rising global demand for electric vehicles and economic energy storage systems has led to projections showing an orders-of-magnitude increase in demand for lithium. In 2020 global supply was roughly 315k tons; this is expected to rise to 5.5M tons by 2040. EnergyX has identified how to improve lithium extraction methods while lessening the environmental mining impact.
“We are pleased to invest in EnergyX at this critical time,” said Obsidian Acquisition Partners Director Kris Haber said. “Some in the electric vehicle (EV) industry have likened lithium mining to the early days of oil exploration. EnergyX has developed a technology for lithium extraction whose potential economic impact on the industry, is similar to ‘fracking’ in terms of efficiency and cost saving, yet limiting environmental impact and global carbon footprint.”
In September 2020, EnergyX announced a partnership with Dr. John Goodenough, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the inventor of the lithium-ion battery, as well as a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). The partnership will explore solid-state battery research and development.
Back in May 2019, EnergyX struck a landmark licensing deal with UT for worldwide exclusive rights to a large portfolio of intellectual property surrounding a new class of “miracle materials” called Metal Organic Frameworks and Mixed Matrix Membranes. Under the licensing agreement, EnergyX committed significant sponsored research funding to UT, part of which will go to fund Goodenough’s lab to tailor materials for solid-state batteries.
