Greentech startup cylib is on a mission to revolutionise how lithium-ion batteries are recycled in Europe, making the process more efficient and sustainable. The Aachen-based startup has just raised €3.6 million as European startups continue to pave the way forward in greentech.

Greentech is one of Europe’s fastest-growing verticals. It’s a market area that is pulling in cash, showcasing exciting innovation and Europe’s startups are pioneering the space on a global scale. Greentech is inherently one of the most important tech verticals at the moment as well – it’s fundamentally crucial to creating more sustainable life on planet earth and it’s shaping how we create a net zero economy. 

The European tech ecosystem is an exciting hub of greentech developments, many spurred on by support from leading universities. In a reflection of this, a spin-off from the RWTH Aachen University, cylib, has just received new investment for its approach to recycling lithium-ion batteries – a key part of a future net zero society. 

Funding details

The €3.6 million seed round was led by Speedinvest alongside Vsquared. 

It’ll be used by German innovators to make the recycling of lithium-ion batteries more efficient and environmentally friendly. With its unique technology, cylib aims to help close the growing recycling gap in the European battery market.

Other investors include Lawrence Leuschner with Blue Impact Ventures, Lieferando founder Kai Hansen, CUSTOMCELLS founders Torge Thönnessen and Leopold König, Silexica founder Maximilian Odendahl, and Karim Jalbout, CPO at Lilium.

Andrej Henkler, experienced business angel: “Europe is the ideal starting point to build out category leaders in the lithium-ion-battery recycling industry. Cylib’s superior technology, their relationships with established battery players, and the fact that they meet all the regulatory requirements already now set them up for long-term success.”

Closing the recycling gap

Founded in 2022 by Lilian Schwich (CEO), Paul Sabarny (CTO) and Dr. Ing. Gideon Schwich (COO), cylib is taking a fresh approach to recycling batteries, and it’s one that could fundamentally improve both Europe’s energy outlook and how e-mobility operates.

Cylib’s proprietary end-to-end process is characterized by the efficient, resource and climate-friendly recovery of all valuable elements in an electric car battery from pack to cell level. Now, the team is determined to industrialize the processes and solve one of the core problems in e-mobility. 

CEO Lilian Schwich explained: “Today’s battery production is not green. With our recycling process we enable the future production of sustainable battery cells. For the huge amount of batteries that will be required for electromobility in the future, a circular economy is required. Our holistic approach to recycling helps protect people, environment, and climate as much as possible.”

Currently, conventional recycling processes fail to recover key resources and have a heavy ecological footprint, releasing large amounts of CO2 and requiring the extensive use of chemicals. It means that most of these processes are actually unsuitable to meet regulatory requirements, and it means current e-mobility solutions might not be as green as one thing. 

Cylib is aiming to change this, extracting materials in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. The startup additionally reuses emitted CO2 and eliminates the need for chemicals to recipe lithium and graphite. 

The annual volume of end-of-life batteries in the EU is expected to increase 13-fold to 1.4 million tons in 2040. Even taking into account the most positive recycling capacity forecast, it is quite apparent that we will face an enormous recycling gap – cylib is actively addressing this challenge. 

This funding will help drive forward the mission and be used to open up a pilot factory in Aachen, in order to industrialize the new recycling process together with partners from different sectors. The team is also said to be in talks with various companies about strategic partnerships – including automotive OEMs, cell producers, and raw material suppliers. 

Dr. Herbert Mangesius from Vsquared Ventures: “We were impressed by the founders’ longstanding experience in battery recycling research, combined with their work in the industry. The team around Lilian Schwich has been working and consulting for leading battery-related companies for the past few years and therefore knows the challenges and potential solutions of this industry. This is a combination we have not seen so far and we think this is going to be crucial when it comes to building up the leading battery recycling firm.”