BRUSSELS and TEL AVIV, Israel, April 19, 2023 — CropX Technologies, a leader in digital agronomic farm management, today announced the completion of a Series C financing round with $30 million in funding. The funding round was led by Aliaxis SA, a world leader enabling access to water and energy through inventive fluid management solutions.  

The funding will be used to build on the two pillars of CropX’s growth: the continued development of innovative capabilities for its agronomic farm management system, and the acquisition of companies with complementary technologies and market reach. Through this partnership, Aliaxis and CropX will continue to collaborate closely in the field of data-driven precision irrigation. Additional investors in the round include Edaphon, Finistere Ventures, NTT Finance Corporation, OurCrowd, Reinke Irrigation, Yair Shamir, and Victrix.

Food production accounts for roughly 70 per cent of total freshwater withdrawals globally and efficient water usage in agriculture is clearly becoming more and more important. Users of CropX’s irrigation planning are able to conserve irrigation water and boost yields. In addition to irrigation, the CropX system also optimizes the use of energy and fertilizers, supports farmers in adopting more sustainable farming practices, and is becoming a one-stop-shop for crop management. CropX now has over 100 employees in the US, the Netherlands, Israel and New Zealand and a large research and development department.

CropX CEO Tomer Tzach comments: “Completing this funding is a huge endorsement from our investors of the value that we bring to our customers and shareholders, and the positive impact we are making on farms around the world. This round follows CropX’s January acquisition of California-based precision irrigation company Tule Technologies, our fourth acquisition. We are proud to be one of the consolidation leaders in ag-tech as we bring a complete, powerful and simple solution to farms and agribusinesses.”

Eric Olsen, CEO of Aliaxis says: “Sustainable water management is at the heart of what we do at Aliaxis. Aliaxis Next is our division created to select, nurture and grow startups in the field of water management. CropX is the best in class for smarter irrigation systems in agriculture and we are thrilled to strengthen our partnership to allow farmers to save water while increasing crop efficiency and food production in a sustainable fashion.”  

Vincent Vliebergh, Managing Partner of Edaphon, further commented: “CropX real-time field data and agronomic expertise supports sustainable farm management and greater productivity to restore soil systems while still feeding a growing population. The implication of Aliaxis providing its industrial and research expertise as well as access to market is a great asset.” 

The financial details of this agreement will not be disclosed.

Media Contact Aliaxis:
Annamaija Bergius | Group Corporate Communications
T: +32 2 775 50 50 | E: [email protected]

About Aliaxis

At Aliaxis, we design sustainable, easy to install, and innovative solutions to address the world’s water challenges and accelerate the transition to clean energy. Thanks to our 15,000+ employees, our pipes and fitting systems meet our customers’ most demanding needs for the building, infrastructure, industrial and agriculture sectors. Operating in over 40 countries, the Company is active through leading local brands and generated €4.3 billion revenue in 2022. More information available on www.aliaxis.com.

About CropX Technologies

CropX Technologies is one of the fastest growing providers of agribusiness farm management solutions in the world, deployed in over 60 countries and across all arable continents. The CropX Agronomic Farm Management System synthesizes data from the earth and sky to offer advanced soil and crop intelligence and a suite of digital decision and planning tools, all on an easy-to-use app capable of tracking multiple farms and fields. CropX is backed by the world’s leading agribusinesses and VCs, who recognize that CropX’s precision ag technologies set new standards for best practices in environmental sustainability and farm productivity. Learn more at www.cropx.com.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2057925/CropX_system.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2057928/CropX_Logo.jpg

Media Contact CropX:
Hanna Day-Woodruff | Communications Specialist
E: [email protected]

SOURCE CropX

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2023 — Trustible™, a software company that helps organizations accelerate Responsible AI governance to maximize trust and manage risk, has announced today it has come out of stealth and raised $1.6M in an oversubscribed first institutional round.

As artificial intelligence technology accelerates and continues to permeate industries worldwide, concerns regarding its ethical and responsible deployment are becoming paramount. With a mission of maximizing trust, managing regulatory and reputational risks, and offering transparency in AI applications, Trustible empowers organizations to confidently adopt AI technologies in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment.

The company was founded by Gerald Kierce and Andrew Gamino-Cheong, former early employees and executives at FiscalNote, a leading AI-driven enterprise SaaS technology provider of global policy and market intelligence. The pair had spent nearly a decade applying AI to the policy landscape and are now applying global policy to the AI space. FiscalNote was recently selected¹ as one of OpenAI’s first plugin partners for ChatGPT.

Trustible raised a $1.6M pre-seed round led by Harlem Capital, with participation from VamosVentures, as well as angel investors including Julius Genachowski (Managing Director at Carlyle, former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission), Tim Hwang and Gerald Yao (FiscalNote Co-Founders), Jim Hunt (Managing Partner at Lavrock Ventures, former Ernst & Young Technologies CEO, Capgemini Technologies President), Joe Zhao (Millennia Capital, former Federal Reserve), and Neal Parikh (Columbia University, former Director of AI for the City of New York), among other strategic angel investors.

The recent financing is enabling Trustible to scale its team, accelerate growth, and further develop its product, designed to help customers seamlessly adopt Responsible AI industry standards, such as NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework, and comply with emerging regulations, including the European Union’s AI Act.

“The Trustible team has strong experience scaling technology companies at the intersection of AI and policy,” says Henri Pierre-Jacques, Managing Partner at Harlem Capital. “We’re thrilled to support Trustible as they become leaders in the Responsible AI Governance space to help organizations comply with a complex and evolving global regulatory landscape.”

According to a recent Accenture report², 77% of enterprises surveyed have made future AI regulation a top company-wide priority, while only 6% have established Responsible AI governance capabilities. Trustible’s platform aims to fill this gap by facilitating the responsible scaling of AI initiatives and creating opportunities for competitive differentiation. The report also indicates that over 80% of organizations intend to allocate at least 10% of their total AI budget to meet regulatory requirements by 2024.

“Societal trust in AI is critical in ensuring the technology is benefiting humanity, particularly with the advent of Generative AI,” says Gerald Kierce, Co-Founder & CEO of Trustible. “We’re thrilled to launch Trustible to enable legal and AI/ML teams to foster transparency, accountability, and trust in their AI systems.”

The company is collaborating with a select group of pilot customers spanning the technology, financial services, and healthcare sectors. Ivan Caballero, CEO of Citibeats, highlighted his enthusiasm to partner with Trustible as a customer to accelerate their company’s Responsible AI governance initiative and proactively adhere to the EU AI Act. He added: “As ethical and regulatory challenges arise with the use of AI, Trustible will play a crucial role in establishing trust and managing the risks associated with AI innovations.”

“We are delighted to welcome Trustible as a Member of the Responsible AI Institute,” says Ashley Casanova, Executive Director of the RAI Institute. “Trustible will become a key technology provider for organizations looking to map, govern, manage, and measure their AI governance priorities.”

Trustible is headquartered in the Washington DC area. To learn more about the company, please visit www.trustible.ai

¹ https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins
² https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/artificial-intelligence/ai-compliance-competitive-advantage

CONTACT: Gerald Kierce, [email protected]

SOURCE Trustible

LOS ANGELES, April 19, 2023 — Third Way Health, an end-to-end front office solution which reduces the administrative burden of medical practices and enhances the patient experience, today announced it has raised $1.55M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Apollo Medical Holdings (ApolloMed), a leading physician-centric, technology-powered healthcare company focused on enabling providers in the successful delivery of value-based care, with participation from angel investors. The funding will enable Third Way Health to establish its operations in the US and Colombia, and launch its solution with two pilot practices serving over 31,000 patients a year in California and New York.

Medical practices collectively spend over $17 billion per year on front office expenses, but often without the desired outcomes: practice owners, managers, and clinicians remain overwhelmed by the day-to-day management of disparate technology systems stitched together by highly manual processes. Meanwhile, patient satisfaction is at an all-time low, evidenced by an average net promoter score of -1.2, and physicians continue to complain about the increasing administrative burden on them and their practices.

Third Way Health was founded to solve this problem, offering practices a new way to manage their front office via its proprietary technology platform, which includes a virtual practice management team, an in-and-outbound multilingual contact center, and marketing and branding services in one comprehensive solution. This allows all medical practice personnel, including nurses, medical assistants, and office managers, to focus on care delivery, while significantly improving access and experience for patients – resulting in greater patient acquisition, enhanced patient retention, and improved quality scores.

“After spending over 7 years helping medical practices transform and interviewing hundreds of practice staff and owners, it became apparent that existing solutions are not sufficient. I heard and personally experienced practices’ well-founded frustrations with disparate technology systems, low-quality service vendors, and lack of management bandwidth – all of which result in broken front-office processes that impact not only the efficiency and efficacy of practice staff but also detract from the patient’s experience and quality of care received,” said Frederik Mueller, Third Way Health’s Co-Founder and CEO.

“Fortune 100 companies have developed a playbook of transforming front and back-office operations and technology systems through centralization that’s been highly effective in many industries. After gaining a better understanding of the current state of medical practice front offices, I was surprised that most medical practices have never had the chance to tap into any of these opportunities. I’m incredibly excited about the chance to transform the healthcare experience for millions of patients,” said Timm Schneider, Third Way Health’s Co-Founder and COO.

Brandon Sim, ApolloMed’s Co-CEO, echoed this sentiment: “We have been empowering physicians to participate and succeed in value-based care arrangements for 25 years. Augmenting our value-based care infrastructure in medical, care, and risk management with the end-to-end, modern, front-office experience that Third Way Health is building is expected to be an immense value-add to us and our partnered clinics and entrepreneurial healthcare providers. We are thrilled to partner with Third Way Health, and look forward to working with them as they build a product that we anticipate will transform medical practice front offices across the country.”

About Third Way Health
Third Way Health offers medical practices an end-to-end front office solution to reduce the administrative burden for clinicians and staff while increasing patient experience, acquisition, and retention. The solution combines a proprietary technology platform, a virtual practice management team, an in-and-outbound multilingual contact center, and marketing and branding services for medical practices of all sizes, specialties, and geographies. For more information, please visit www.thirdway.health. 

About ApolloMed
ApolloMed is a leading physician-centric, technology-powered, risk-bearing healthcare management company. Leveraging its proprietary end-to-end technology solutions, ApolloMed operates an integrated healthcare delivery platform that enables providers to successfully participate in value-based care arrangements, thus empowering them to deliver high quality care to patients in a cost-effective manner.

Headquartered in Alhambra, California, ApolloMed’s subsidiaries and affiliates include management services organizations (MSOs), affiliated independent practice associations (IPAs), and entities participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI) innovation models. For more information, please visit www.apollomed.net.

SOURCE Third Way Health

INDIANAPOLIS, April 19, 2023 — Orthodontic Details (Details) today announced it is collaborating with 3M Oral Care, DynaFlex, G&H Orthodontics, Reliance Orthodontic Products and other orthodontic suppliers to make ordering supplies easier for practices. 

Details, the ordering platform built exclusively for orthodontics, gives practices one place to order from any supplier. Through this collaboration, practices will be able to start using Details faster, while suppliers benefit from tighter overall integration.

“Practices want to focus on patients, not purchasing supplies,” said Details President, Nick Wangler. “One of the best ways we can help them do that is reducing friction in the ordering process for practices and suppliers alike. Because we’re supplier agnostic, we’re able to leverage our technology to help make ordering more efficient across the board.” 

Details has grown from zero to 85 practices in the 13 months since it launched its ordering platform, garnering attention from suppliers, industry partners and practices alike. 

Supplier partners range from industry leaders to long-time orthodontic favorites including 3M Oral Care, DynaFlex, Reliance Orthodontic Products, G&H Orthodontics, Amtouch, Allure, Young Specialties, Plak Smacker, Wild Smiles, Baylab, and more. While Details works with all orthodontic suppliers, the company shared these suppliers as being proactive in finding ways to save practices time with ordering. 

“Today’s announcement is a reflection of how deeply these suppliers care about their customers,” shared Details Vice President of Practice Success, Carrianne Garrison Ford. “By working together, we’re able to make life easier for orthodontic practices, no matter who they order from. And this is just the beginning.”

Garrison Ford most recently served as the procurement team lead at Smile Doctors, before joining Details last fall. 

In addition to collaborating with suppliers, the company has established partnerships with Neon Canvas, Mari’s List, CFO Ortho, Jill Allen & Associates, Merchant Cost Consulting, and others.

In January, the largest buying group in orthodontics, Mari’s List, announced they were using Details technology for their innovative membership portal, which allows members to quickly find information about a particular consultant, supplier, or promotion. In April, Wild Smiles announced Details as the exclusive e-commerce ordering solution for their customers.

Details is also working with fellow technology companies, like Grin, to ensure practices using both companies have a smooth ordering experience. While Details connects practices and suppliers, Grin is a comprehensive virtual care platform that connects practices and patients. Like Details, Grin has experienced exponential growth, doubling subscription practice accounts since October, and being used by thousands of practice owners and team members, and tens of thousands of patients. 

“I feel lucky to work in an industry where fellow technology companies, vendors, and suppliers alike are open to new ideas,” Jeff Biggs, DDS, MS, Indianapolis orthodontist, and Details CEO shared. “The less time a practice spends on the administrative side of ordering, the more time they can spend clinically. That gives us as orthodontists the ability to take on more patients, while still delivering outstanding patient outcomes.”

About Details: Details is an ordering platform built exclusively for orthodontics to give practices one place to order from any supplier. See more: https://orthodonticdetails.com/ 

Media contact: Nick Wangler, [email protected] or 815-252-4159

SOURCE Orthodontic Details

Keynotes, panels and two business competitions connect entrepreneurs, thought leaders and investors in evolving longevity market

LAFAYETTE, Calif., April 19, 2023 — Mary Furlong & Associates (MFA), producer of the longest running conference in the longevity economy, announced its 20^th annual What’s Next Longevity Venture Summit on June 14–15. With the theme The 2030 Horizon: Charting a Course for Longevity Investors and Entrepreneurs, the conference will bring together thought leaders, including active investors, entrepreneurs, incubators, nonprofits, government agencies and large companies focused on the $8.3 trillion longevity economy for keynote speeches, incisive panel discussions and two business competitions.

“We are proud to bring this industry-leading summit to the longevity market for the 20^th year,” said Mary Furlong, founder and president of MFA. “With more than 300 attendees, the event not only delivers access to investors who are actively funding in the longevity space, but also provides a blueprint for deal flow. This platform for connecting the longevity ecosystem is critical in creating success in challenging environments like those facing entrepreneurs today.”

Highlights of the conference include keynotes and sessions with experts in longevity and investing, including: Mark Mahaney, leading investment analyst and author; Safwan Shah, founder and CEO of PayActiv; Zeigler’s Dan Hermann; Todd Haim, SBIR Chief at NIA; Christine Brocato, Vice President of Strategic Innovation, Common Spirit Health; and Dr. Allison Sekuler, President & Chief Scientist, Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation. Other sessions focus on what investors are looking for, non-dilutive funding opportunities, women leading in longevity and healthcare, going to market in the longevity economy, the future of AI and older adults, and much more.

As part of the 20^th anniversary, Furlong asked 20 longevity thought leaders about their strategies 20 years ago, the biggest changes and their visions for the future. Dan Hermann, president & CEO and head of Investment Banking for Zeigler, focused on the dramatic growth of the longevity market. “I’ve personally been working around senior living for 30 plus years, and when we raised our first Ziegler Link-age Fund nearly 10 years ago, the idea of investing exclusively in technologies and services touching on aging and longevity was novel,” Hermann said. “Today, large tech players like Apple, Amazon, and Uber are all taking note in light of the undeniable demographic shifts. When you think about the imbalance between those needing care and those able to provide it, the need for technology is clear.” Hermann continued, “In the next 5, 10 and 20 years, I fully expect we will see continued innovation and technological breakthroughs to support healthy aging for older adults, no matter where they live.”

Business Competitions

There will also be two competitions for entrepreneurs: What’s Next Longevity Venture Summit $10,000 Business Plan Competition, “Where Innovation Meets Investment in the Longevity Market” and the AARP AgeTech Collaborative Social Connection Pitch Competition.

The What’s Next Longevity Venture Summit will take place at the Claremont Club & Spa, Berkeley, California on June 14-15. Sessions will be recorded for on-demand viewing. Sponsors include: AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, GetSetUp, Ageless Innovation, Posit Science, Discover Live, Everest Health Partners, TCARE, Keen Insurance Services, The Perfect Companion, Ziegler Link-Age, LifeBio, Home Instead, an Honor Company, UpLyft, Elevance Health, and Prufrock Ventures.

Those who register before May 15 will save with early bird rates. Click here to learn more.

Learn more about Mary Furlong & Associates at maryfurlong.com.

SOURCE Mary Furlong & Associates

New Funding Led by StepStone Group, with Participation from Current Investors will Accelerate the Growth of Accounting Automation Platform

NEW YORK, April 19, 2023 — Trullion, a leading provider of corporate accounting software, today announced the completion of $30m in financing to accelerate its growth and expand its product offerings. The financing includes $15 million from its initial Series A round led by Third Point Ventures, and an additional $15 million, led by Stepstone Group, with full participation from its existing investors Aleph, Third Point Ventures and Greycroft.

Trullion plans to use the new funding to accelerate the growth of its artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications, and to develop two new modules supporting audit and revenue recognition. The company’s AI-powered accounting platform connects corporate controllers, CFOs, and external auditors on one platform, providing a single source of truth for financial leaders. 

“It’s a great company at a critical time in the accounting world,” StepStone Group Partner John Avirett notes. “We believe this is the right time to get on board. The financial industry needs powerful, cost-effective technology that can automate critical processes and minimize risk. Companies are also discovering that AI and accounting automation is essential to keeping up with financial standards.” 

“It is a pivotal moment now for the financial sector and our solution creates transparency at a time when that is needed most,” says Trullion CEO Isaac Heller. “We had a strong balance sheet from our Series A, but given our 2022 performance and multi-year growth prospects, we saw an opportunity to bolster our product investment while bringing on a top global investment partner in Stepstone.”

Trullion leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate accounting and compliance workflows, such as Lease Accounting, Revenue Recognition and Audit automation tools. The company has raised $34m to date since launching in 2020. 

About Trullion

Trullion is an AI-powered accounting platform that automates financial workflows for CFOs, accountants, and auditors to increase efficiency, prevent costly oversights, and drive collaboration. Established in 2019, Trullion is headquartered in New York, NY with offices in Tel Aviv and backed by Aleph, Third Point Ventures, Greycroft, StepStone Group and leading global CFOs. To learn more about Trullion, visit www.trullion.com.

CONTACT: DeeDee Rudenstein, [email protected]

SOURCE Trullion

The report finds $90B have been invested in robotics startups over the last five years

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 19, 2023 — F-Prime Capital, today announced the release of its State of Robotics report. The report provides comprehensive insight into investment trends and exits. Over the last 5 years, 1,250 robotics companies have generated $20B+ of M&A, $15B of market cap across public companies, and $100B+ of unrealized value from private unicorns alone. 2022 saw a significant pull back in valuations for robotics companies as investors focused on higher revenue predictability and increased capital efficiency, though many companies were able to retain premium valuation multiples.

The report analyzes which companies should be classified as “robotics” and what use case they are pursuing.

“We’ve seen an incredible evolution of business models and investment dynamics in robotics, which has been difficult to define within traditional VC deal databases. The emergence of autonomous vehicles has been the catalyst for a new generation of engineers and entrepreneurs who are building the next generation of robotics companies, which are solving real-world problems,” said Sanjay Aggarwal, Venture Partner at F-Prime Capital. “The growing number of opportunities, quality of entrepreneurs and market leaders in the industry are making robotics an attractive sector for VC investment. We’re excited to present our first State of Robotics report, providing valuable insight into investment trends and exits, and a glimpse into the future of the robotics industry.”

According to the report, the last five years saw $90B invested in startups across the global robotics industry, representing roughly 10% of overall VC investments in technology. Western markets, including the US, Europe, and Israel represent 70% of overall investment.

The report identifies three primary categories of robotics investments:

• Vertical Robotics (use-case specific, industrial-focused): One of the more exciting trends in the industry has been the growth of Vertical Robotics, with the sector defying the overall VC market by growing again in 2022. Vertical Robotics focuses on very specific use cases across a range of industries, including logistics, medicine, defense, and manufacturing.
• Autonomous Vehicles (public roads only): The major driver of investment has been for AV companies, with more than 50% of investments flowing to AV in most years. However, with the sharp pullback of investments in 2022, AV was particularly impacted as investors began to question the path to commercialization for many of these companies.
• Enabling Systems (hardware and software components for developing complete solutions): Rapid evolution of the building blocks for robotics enables start-ups to leverage off-the-shelf hardware, while innovating with modern advances in computer vision and machine learning. Rapid prototyping enabled by 3D printing also helps accelerate product development cycles. 

The report also highlights Asia as an end-user market and an early adopter of robotics. For example, many companies focused on logistics robotics have found success selling in Japan. Meanwhile, several Chinese automotive OEMs are already rolling out LiDAR on production vehicles.

The State of Robotics Report can be accessed here.

About F-Prime Capital

F-Prime Capital is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare. For over 50 years, we have had the privilege of partnering with great entrepreneurs building groundbreaking companies. In technology, we focus on enterprise software, fintech and frontier tech. While we are early-stage investors by choice, we back exceptional teams at any stage.

F-Prime Capital has over $4.5 billion under management and a global portfolio of more than 290 companies including Alibaba, AppsFlyer, Benchling, BenchSci, Flywire, FutureAdvisor, Kensho, Neo4j, OTA Insight, PingIdentity, Quovo, Recurly, RiskRecon, Snapdocs, Toast, Vendr and Xoom.

F-Prime has offices in Cambridge, MA, San Francisco, CA, and London, UK.

For more information, please visit fprimecapital.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Liang Zhao
[email protected]
505-720-6933

SOURCE F-Prime Capital

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, 2023 — Marubeni, a leading Japanese trading company, and KitchenTown, a Silicon Valley-based food start-up incubator, signed an investment agreement on April 13, 2023. Marubeni’s investment will support the growth of KitchenTown’s consulting, and incubation activities. Together, the companies intend to support Japanese startups entering the U.S. market and the growth of American startups expanding into Asia.

“Startups drive the growth of the global economy as they break the mold of conventional wisdom and create new value,” says Takanori Koso, General Manager of Food Products Materials Dept. for Marubeni. “In order for these startups to achieve maximum impact, they need support to overcome hurdles in product development, commercialization, brand strategy and more. Incubators are a proven model to efficiently provide resources, expertise, and support to early-stage ventures. Our investment in KitchenTown will expand access to these services and reach even more food and foodtech companies in both the U.S. and Japan, in order to lead to positive food systems impacts.”

“Within the food industry, global challenges such as climate change, nutrition and health inequities are driving entrepreneurs to create a new generation of more sustainable, accessible, and healthy foods. Consumers are also increasingly aware of these issues and demanding responsible action from food companies,” adds Rusty Schwartz, CEO of KitchenTown. “With Marubeni’s investment, we will be better capitalized and positioned to enable innovators to make a difference.”

Founded in 2014, KitchenTown provides startups with the knowledge and resources needed to develop, commercialize, and launch a wide range of food and food tech ventures. In addition to specialized expertise and resources to support startups, KitchenTown also offers production space to entrepreneurs for R&D and small-scale manufacturing, including a newly opened San Francisco lab and pilot facility for commercialization of alternative proteins. In addition to supporting startups, KitchenTown also has a broad client base, including legacy companies that need innovation support as well as corporate venture groups seeking advice on food tech investment opportunities.

Marubeni Corporation is over 160 years old and one of Japan’s largest trading companies.  Active internationally in many sectors, including import/export, lifestyle, food, agri business, forest products, metals & mineral resources, energy, infrastructure, finance, leasing & real estate, construction, mobility and next generation business development.

KitchenTown and Marubeni first collaborated in 2021 to develop, commercialize, and launch a new product. The success of this project highlighted a strategic opportunity for more cooperation to support the growth of startups and food companies seeking to solve social issues through food tech.

With this agreement, Marubeni’s global network and KitchenTown’s specialized knowledge and experience with food startups will combine to create business and social impacts through the support of food and foodtech innovators.

SOURCE KitchenTown

SYDNEY, April 19, 2023 — Novalith Technologies, creator of a novel lithium extraction process that will unlock vast resources and deliver them without the environmental toll of traditional approaches, has raised AU$23 million in Series A funding. Led by Lowercarbon Capital, the round includes participation from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), the Grantham Environmental Trusts’ Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund, TDK Ventures and Investible.

The auto industry is in the midst of a once-in-a-century shift, replacing the internal combustion engine with electric alternatives that rely on the same core piece of technology: lithium-ion batteries. To fuel this revolution, the world needs to produce up to 2.7 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent by 2030, a 4-fold increase since last year. Until recently, most of the energy-dense metal that the industry uses today came from brine resources: naturally-occurring salt lakes concentrated in the “Lithium Triangle” countries of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. These projects require large evaporation ponds that are harmful to the environment, hard to get approved, and yield low product purities.

Those challenges have spurred industry interest in hard rock resources, which are plentiful and currently provide ~60% of the world’s lithium but, based on current methods, are difficult, expensive, environmentally harmful and can’t be brought online fast enough to meet demand. At Novalith Technologies, we have pioneered a novel process that remakes hard-rock lithium extraction and refining into a dramatically cheaper, greener and more scalable process.

Instead of the traditional method that relies on significant amounts of sulfuric acid to extract lithium, a process that leaves behind a plethora of harmful by-products and waste, Novalith uses carbonated water to extract the lithium directly as battery grade lithium carbonate and leaves a by-product of inert, CO₂-infused rock.

Novalith’s technology cuts process costs, plant costs, and plant footprints by up to 65%, 50%, and 25%, respectively compared to the conventional process. It uses 90% less water than current approaches and promises to supercharge the energy transition by opening mineral resources in new geographies. When paired with renewable energy sources, the technology opens a path to carbon-negative lithium production.

Led by Steven Vassiloudis, a repeat entrepreneur and chemical engineer, Novalith has assembled a team of top scientists, engineers, and fossil fuel refugees working together to speed the arrival of the lithium century. This funding will enable us to scale up and commercialise our patented LiCAL™ Technology, including a new pilot facility in Sydney, Australia, which will be used to process numerous lithium resources from around the world and produce lithium carbonate for testing by customers.

Since raising our seed funding round in August 2021, Novalith has built out our R&D facility in Sydney, Australia, demonstrating the performance of our patented process across several different local and global ore resources and a path to sustainable and carbon-negative lithium production.

“It’s a massive opportunity to be able to disrupt and meaningfully contribute to something as important as electrification & decarbonisation. We are very grateful to have the support of a strong group of mission aligned investors who understand the urgency and significance of what we’re aiming to achieve,” said Steven Vassiloudis, founder and CEO of Novalith. “Our technology has the potential to significantly decarbonise the lithium supply chain as well as unlock new lithium ore reserves and opportunities, providing low cost and environmentally sustainable lithium to a world that is rapidly racing towards an electric future.”

“Novalith halves the cost of extracting lithium from hard rocks with tech that’s also cleaner and faster, giving us a shot to keep up with exploding demand without turning the whole planet into an open-pit mine,” said Chris Sacca, Managing Partner of Lowercarbon Capital.

CEFC CEO, Ian Learmonth said: “Australia ranks amongst the largest lithium producers in the world, and it’s clear the world will need more lithium than it has now. Novalith’s ambitious technology is changing lithium production to make it greener and more cost effective to power the batteries we need for the storage and electric vehicles that are transforming our energy future.”

Managing Partner Virescent Ventures Kristin Vaughan said: “By investing in innovative Australian companies like Novalith, the CEFC is backing the development of a sustainable potential on-shore solution for lithium production and helping to strengthen the sustainability of supply-chain in Australia.” Virescent Ventures manages the Novalith investment on behalf of the CEFC.

“Novalith’s innovative technology not only allows faster access to Lithium for meeting our rapid electrification ambitions, but it also does so by converting CO₂ to valuable battery material, hence drastically reducing the overall CO₂ footprint of the process,” said Anil Achyuta, TDK Ventures’ Managing Director.

About Novalith

Novalith Technologies is a Sydney, Australia based climate technology company that uses carbon dioxide to simplify lithium chemicals production.

We are motivated by our belief that the future of lithium mining and refining will require the elimination of carbon-intensive energy sources, and ideally turn carbon waste into carbon value.

Novalith’s LiCAL™ lithium extraction technology uses significantly less equipment, chemical reagents, water and energy than conventional processing, which reduces capital and production costs. The direct use and sequestration of CO₂ in producing lithium chemicals also produces a much smaller emissions footprint than existing and alternative processes.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2057593/Novalith_Technologies_Team.jpg 
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1668742/3993121/NOVALITH_PRIMARY_PURPLE_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Novalith Technologies Pty Ltd