Fundraising efforts have netted Ascend Elements $542 million, adding to the $480 million the company received from two Department of Energy grants. | Janaka Dharmasena/Shutterstock
Ascend Elements raised a total of $542 million in equity investments to help scale up its lithium-ion battery manufacturing.
Part of that sum was $460 million from recent Series D investments and $82 million of additional investments from earlier this year.
The Series D round was led by Decarbonization Partners and Qatar Investment Authority, with other investors including Tenaska, Alliance Resource Partners, Pulse and BHP Ventures.
According to a press release, the $542 million equity financing is one of the largest cleantech equity private placements in the United States of 2023. The money will be used to construct a facility in Hopkinsville, Ky. that will process black mass into cathode precursor and cathode active material.
In the past year, Ascend Elements was also awarded two U.S. Department of Energy grants totaling $480 million.