Currently, only 40% of EV batteries undergo some form of recycling, with the remaining 60% winding up in landfills. Existing recycling methods are highly inefficient and fail to recycle the black mass, which are the materials of the anode and cathode of the battery. tozero has developed a novel way of recycling Lithium-Ion Batteries (LiBs) based on the CTO’s years of research and development experience at RWTH Aachen’s Institute for Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling (IME). Through a proprietary process of hydrometallurgy or chemical leaching, tozero is able to recycle up to 97% of the Black Mass in LiBs and for the first time recover the valuable Lithium. After having conducted over 70 successful tests in a laboratory setting, tozero is now focusing on scaling its process, with the ambitious goal of building its first commercial-size plant with a 30k tonnes capacity by 2030.
Location: Germany, Bavaria, Munich
Total raised: $16.87M
Founders name: Sarah Fleischer; Ksenija Milicevic Neumann
Investors 3
| Date | Name | Website |
| 13.10.2022 | Atlantic L... | atlanticla... |
| - | Verve Vent... | verve.vc |
| 12.05.2023 | RESPOND Ac... | respond-ac... |
Funding Rounds 2
| Date | Series | Amount | Investors |
| 12.11.2024 | Seed | $11.79M | - |
| 09.09.2022 | - | $5.08M | - |
Persons 7
| Date | First Name | Last Name | Title | Location | |||
| - | Matthieu | Faustin | Business O... | linkedin.c... | - | m******u@t... | - |
| - | Sarah | Fleischer | Co-Founder... | linkedin.c... | - | S***h@toze... | - |
| - | Sachin | Samarakone | Hydrometal... | linkedin.c... | - | s****n@toz... | - |
| - | Ksenija | Milicevic ... | Co-founder... | linkedin.c... | - | k*****a@to... | - |
| - | Sabareesh | Gopalakris... | Plant Oper... | linkedin.c... | - | s*******h@... | - |
| - | Tim | Zinkl | - | linkedin.c... | - | t*m@tozero... | - |
| - | Lennart | Morlock | Mechanical... | linkedin.c... | - | l*****t@to... | - |
Mentions in press and media 9
| Date | Title | Description |
| 12.11.2024 | tozero sammelt 11 Millionen ein – Quantune bekommt 13,5 Millionen – Kugu erhält 8,5 Millionen | Im #DealMonitor für den 12. November werfen wir einen Blick auf die wichtigsten, spannendsten und interessantesten Investments und Exits des Tages in der DACH-Region. Alle Deals der Vortage gibt es im großen und übersichtlichen #DealMonitor... |
| 12.11.2024 | tozero secures €11M for first of its kind lithium recycling plant | Lithium battery recycling startup tozero has raised €11M in an oversubscribed seed round led by NordicNinja. New investors joining the round include In-Q-Tel (IQT), automotive giant Honda, and global infrastructure engineering giant JGC Gro... |
| 12.11.2024 | Munich-based tozero raises €11 million to expand recycled lithium production | - |
| 12.11.2024 | tozero Raises €11M in Seed Funding | tozero, a Munich, Germany-based sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling company, raised €11M in Seed funding. The round was led by NordicNinja, with participation from In-Q-Tel (IQT), JGC Group and existing investors including Atlantic La... |
| 03.11.2022 | 8 neue Startups: aborise, Eterno, comstruct, Gibbi, Torg, Detagto, tozero, Coher Sense | deutsche-startups.de präsentiert heute wieder einmal einige junge Startups, die zuletzt, also in den vergangenen Wochen und Monaten, an den Start gegangen sind, sowie Firmen, die zuletzt aus dem Stealth-Mode erwacht sind. Übrigens: Noch meh... |
| 09.09.2022 | Tozero raises €3.5 million in funding | Munich-based startup Tozero, which specializes in recycling lithium-ion batteries, has raised €3.5 million in a pre-seed round. According to the company, it developed a novel process to recover critical materials from batteries. The funds w... |
| 07.09.2022 | Munich’s climate tech startup tozero charges with €3.5 million to recycle lithium-ion batteries | Lithium-ion batteries are crucial to enable decarbonisation efforts and will be used to electrify mobility vehicles, machines, drones, or power banks. However, Europe’s ambition for electrification and increasing the LiB production results ... |
| 06.09.2022 | Just outside of Munich, a startup plans a new process to recycle Lithium-ion batteries | Companies like Redwood Materials (raised $792M), Li-Cycle, (Canada, raised $667.7M) and Green Li-ion (Singapore $15M) have made a name for themselves in recycling batteries. The activity of recycling existing lithium batteries remains one o... |
| - | tozero | “Truly bringing lithium-ion battery waste tozero by recovering all critical matierlas, like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite.” |