VoLo Earth Ventures
Assembly Line
Geothermal Innovator XGS Energy Completes Oversubscribed $20M Capital Raise
XGS Energy, an innovator in next-generation geothermal energy technology, announced that it has completed $20 million in additional Series A financing. The final close was led by Valo Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures, and included financing from new investors B Current Impact Investment, MIH Capital, and individual inside investors, as well as additional funding from existing investor Thin Line Capital. This new financing builds on the $9.7 million round led by Constellation Technology Ventures earlier this year, and the $14M Series A investment led by Anzu Partners.
This financing will support XGS’ first commercial-scale project in California later this year and accelerate deployment of its proprietary water-independent geothermal technology across its global project pipeline. With over $40 million in total funding to date, XGS’s growing investor and partner network reflects the commercial promise of its technology and its potential to contribute to a clean, reliable, and affordable electricity grid.
Nth Cycle Closes $44 Million in Series B and Non-Dilutive Financing to Scale Clean Critical Metal Refining Technology
Nth Cycle, the innovative critical metals refining company, has closed $37 million in Series B and an additional $7 million in non-dilutive financing, led by VoLo Earth Ventures, a Colorado-based venture firm focused on climate solutions; MassMutual through the MM Catalyst Fund I, which invests in rural-based and Black-led businesses based in Massachusetts; Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives; and Equinor Ventures, the venture capital arm of Equinor, a multinational energy company. Nth Cycle recently received two Department of Energy awards including $3 million from the Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) to drive the innovation required to strengthen America’s competitiveness in a global net-zero economy.
Nth Cycle’s patented Electro-Extraction technology replaces conventional and energy-intensive pyrometallurgy, also known as smelting, with a clean and modular refining system, aptly named The Oyster. Nth Cycle partners with industrial scrap recyclers, miners, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to take a variety of feedstocks, including black mass, primary ore concentrates, and waste streams and refines them into metal products for the domestic clean energy economy.
Nth Cycle Secures $12.5 Million in Series A Financing to Scale Clean Critical Mineral Recycling & Mining Technology
Nth Cycle, the innovative metal processing and recycling technology company, has announced the closing of its $12.5 million Series A financing, co-led by the investment arm of Frankstahl, one of the largest privately held steel distribution companies in Europe, and VoLo Earth, a Colorado-based venture firm focused on climate solutions. Nth Cycle is disrupting the critical mineral supply chain necessary for electric vehicles, solar power, and energy storage through a groundbreaking recycling, mining and refining technology. Other investors in the financing include global commodities powerhouse, Mercuria, MassMutual through the MM Catalyst Fund, and previous investor Clean Energy Ventures.
Nth Cycle has engineered and developed an environmentally friendly process called electro-extraction that recovers critical minerals such as cobalt and nickel. In less than twelve months, the company has scaled its technology by 100x from bench-scale to a full commercial demonstration, which will be deployed by April 2022. Nth Cycle’s technology allows recyclers and miners to recover critical minerals from discarded batteries, low-grade ores, and mine site waste using only electricity and carbon filters. Electro-extraction is a cleaner, lower-cost alternative to the conventional, and prohibitively dirty pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes currently used by battery recyclers and mining companies. Nth Cycle’s technology expands the circular supply chain for the clean energy transition and can help disrupt China’s dominance in mining and refining of critical minerals.