Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2024 - 26

INDUSTRY NEWS
Cyclic Rakes In $83 Million to Extend Magnet Recycling Reach: Microsoft Investment
Targets Hard Drives; Auto Salvage in UK Marks First Overseas Supply Deal
clean energy transition. Not only is our technology essential for
supporting sustainable domestic production of rare earths, but
it will also play a critical role in re-establishing North American
and European leadership in the rare earths industry. "
The Series B funding follows a $3.6 million grant award from
Natural Resources Canada that supports the continued operation
of Cyclic Materials' commercial demonstration facility
(Hub100) for producing high-purity REEs from recycled magnet
material and preparing for scaling to larger operations.
Recyling magnets from computer hard drives has garnered the
attention and funding of Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund.
It's one of several pathways that Cyclic Materials of trekking to
extend its reach. Auto recycling in the UK is another.
Recycling magnets from hard drives, electric motors and wind
turbines has garnered the attention -- and opened the wallets
-- of Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund and other investors,
representing several new avenues that Cyclic Materials of Toronto
is pursuing to gather more magnets into its supply stream
and extend the reach for its technology. Auto salvage in the UK
is another, marking the company's first overseas feedstock deal
- and with ties to parent companies IAA and Ritchie Auctions
which have extensive worldwide operations in the used vehicle
business.
Established in 2021, Cyclic develops metallurgical technologies
for transforming end-of-life products into valuable raw materials.
It recently opened its Hub100 plant in Kingston, Ontario,
deploying its REEPure technology to generate a domestic
source of mixed rare earth oxide in North America.
On September 25, Cyclic successfully closed an oversubscribed
$53 million Series B equity round led by ArcTern
Investors and supported by a string of new cleantech investors
including Hitachi Ventures and the Microsoft fund. Others included
BDC Capital's Climate Tech Fund, Zero Infinity Partners
and Climate Investment. Existing investors Fifth Wall, BMW i
Ventures, Energy Impact Partners and Planetary Technologies
also participated in the round.
A stunning demonstration of investor interest in magnet recycling,
also in Cyclic's proprietary technologies and business
plan, the funding brings the company's total equity raised to
over $83 million. The funds will enable Cyclic to fast-track its
international growth plans to build rare earth recycling infrastructure
in the US and Europe, and to
grow its team.
" We're energized to partner with the
world's top sustainability-focused
infrastructure and corporate investors
to scale our technology's impact, "
said Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and
Co-Founder of Cyclic Materials. " This
funding underscores the confidence
in our ability to create the circular
economy for rare earths needed for the
26 Magnetics Business & Technology
" The opportunity to invest in companies like Cyclic Materials
at this stage of development and scaling is scarce, " said
Tobias Jahn, Partner at Hitachi Ventures. " We are impressed
with their high growth potential, strong leadership, proprietary
extraction processes from electronic and industrial waste, and
commitment to overcoming the limited availability of rare earth
elements essential for various technologies in today's electrification
era. "
In July, the Microsoft fund made an equity investment of an undisclosed
amount in Cyclic. Microsoft characterized the investment
as representative of its commitment to a circular economy
and interest in hard drive rare earth element recycling.
Over the past two years, Cyclic has developed a patentpending
technology named CC360 for recovering rare earths
contained in end-of-life hard drives. While hard drives are
typically sent to an IT asset disposal company at the end of life,
this disposal process is designed for data destruction, followed
by shredding of drives for the recovery of other metals such
as gold and silver. The rare earths contained are currently not
recovered. With CC360, however, disposal companies can
separate a portion of hard drives for rare earth recovery while
retaining the rest for their traditional process. The separated
magnets can then be processed by Cyclic's processing technologies,
unlocking an additional value stream from hard drive
disposal.
" Microsoft is working to achieve zero waste across our direct
operations, products, and packaging by 2030. This means
adopting a circular economy approach, " said Brandon Middaugh,
senior director of the fund. " As demand for rare earth
elements continues to grow in importance, we're excited to
support the creation of a sustainable supply of these materials
with this investment. "
Ahmad Ghahreman,
CEO and Co-Founder
of Cyclic Materials
The backing was influenced by recent success Cyclic has demonstrated
with hard drives. " We have been working with Cyclic
over the past few months to trial the use of the CC360 in our
operations. We have seen tremendous performance improvements
through the development and achieved throughput of
one hard drive per second, " said Sean Magann, chief commercial
officer at Sims Lifecycle Services, an IT asset disposal
company located in the UK. " This solution enables us to drive
further value out of disposed hard drives, by reclaiming the critical
rare earths, while maintaining the data security of the hard
drives being disposed. An additional benefit is the reduction of
magnets clogging our shredders. We look forward to deploying
this technology across our operations. "
SLS is the main European subsidiary of global metal and
* November/December 2024
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Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2024

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