This Redwood Materials company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Redwood Materials works in climate and energy, with a focus on battery recycling, materials and energy storage. It was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, United States. Its latest valuation on record is About US$6 billion (October 2025). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | Series E | US$350M | About US$6B | Eclipse (lead); NVentures (Nvidia) | Wilson Sonsini |
Redwood Materials timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2017 — Redwood Materials is founded in Carson City by JB Straubel (CEO).
- Oct 2025 — Series E: US$350M, valuing the company at About US$6B. Investors: Eclipse (lead); NVentures (Nvidia).
Investors
Overview
Redwood Materials recycles lithium-ion batteries and turns the recovered metals into new battery materials. It collects old batteries from phones, laptops, power tools, electric vehicles and factory scrap, extracts lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and other materials, and refines them into components that battery makers can reuse. Its goal is a "closed loop" battery supply chain in North America, reducing reliance on mining and on imports from China, which dominates global battery material processing. More recently, Redwood has launched Redwood Energy, which reuses old electric vehicle batteries to provide low-cost energy storage, including for AI data centres.
JB Straubel founded Redwood Materials in 2017 and is its CEO. Straubel was a co-founder and long-time chief technology officer of Tesla, where he led the development of its battery and powertrain technology and the Gigafactory. Redwood is headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, near its main recycling and materials campus, and has been building a second large site in South Carolina.
What Redwood does
- Collection: takes in batteries and scrap from consumers, recyclers, automakers and battery factories, including scrap from Panasonic's Nevada battery plant.
- Recycling and refining: uses heat-based and chemical processes to recover more than 95% of key metals, according to the company, and refine them into battery-grade materials.
- Battery materials: produces materials such as copper foil and cathode active material, the most valuable part of a battery cell, for battery makers.
- Redwood Energy: repurposes used EV batteries that still hold much of their capacity into grid-scale storage systems, launched in 2025 with a first project supporting an AI data centre.
Why battery recycling matters
Batteries contain valuable metals that can be recovered almost indefinitely. As millions of electric vehicles reach the end of their life over the coming decades, recycled materials could supply a significant share of battery demand. Recycling reduces the environmental impact of mining, can be cheaper than extracting virgin materials, and improves supply security for countries that lack domestic mines and refineries. US policy has supported domestic battery supply chains, although incentives for electric vehicles have changed under different administrations.
Redwood Energy and the AI power crunch
AI data centres need enormous and growing amounts of electricity, and grid connections can take years to secure. Energy storage can help data centres use more solar power, reduce peak demand charges and provide backup. New lithium-ion storage systems are expensive; Redwood says its second-life storage, built from used EV batteries that are no longer suited to cars but still work well for stationary storage, can be deployed faster and at lower cost. Its first major installation supplies power to a data centre operated by Crusoe in Nevada. This business gives Redwood a new market as EV growth in the US has slowed.
Funding
Redwood has raised several billion dollars from investors including Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Ford. It was valued at more than US$5 billion after a 2023 round. In October 2025 it closed a US$350 million Series E at about US$6 billion, led by Eclipse, with new strategic investor NVentures, Nvidia's venture arm, according to its law firm. Redwood also received a conditional US$2 billion loan commitment from the US Department of Energy in 2023 for its South Carolina site, which it later chose not to draw down. The company has hired a former Tesla chief financial officer, but hasn't set an IPO timeline.
Competition
Redwood competes with other battery recyclers such as Li-Cycle (which went through bankruptcy and was acquired by Glencore), Ascend Elements, Cirba Solutions and Umicore, and with Chinese recyclers and materials producers that operate at enormous scale. In energy storage it competes with established battery storage providers using new cells. Its advantages are its founder's credibility with automakers, its integrated model from recycling to materials, and its large US operations.
Redwood Materials at a glance
Redwood Materials is a Carson City, Nevada, company founded in 2017 by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel. It recycles lithium-ion batteries, produces battery materials and, through Redwood Energy, builds energy storage from used EV batteries for data centres and the grid. It raised a US$350 million Series E at about US$6 billion in October 2025, led by Eclipse with Nvidia's NVentures.
The economics of recycling
Recycling profitability depends heavily on metal prices. When lithium, nickel and cobalt prices are high, recovered materials are valuable; when prices fall, as they did sharply in 2023 and 2024, margins shrink. Recyclers also depend on a steady supply of batteries, and today much of the supply comes from factory scrap rather than end-of-life vehicles, because most EVs on the road are still young. Building refining capacity requires large capital investments before volumes reach scale. Redwood's move into energy storage helps diversify its revenue away from commodity prices.
Questions for automakers and data centre operators
- How much recycled content can be used in new batteries, and at what cost?
- How reliable and safe are second-life batteries over a storage project's lifetime?
- How do recycling partners track and certify materials for compliance and incentives?
How battery recycling works
Used batteries are first discharged and broken down. In Redwood's process, materials go through heat treatment and hydrometallurgy, where chemical solutions dissolve and separate individual metals. The recovered lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper are purified to battery grade. Some materials, such as copper, can be turned directly into components like the thin copper foil used in battery anodes; others go into cathode production. Each step has to meet the purity standards battery makers demand, because impurities can reduce performance and safety.
Latest developments (October 2026)
Redwood Materials closed its Series E at US$425 million in January 2026 after Google joined the round, according to TechCrunch. Eclipse led the round, with Nvidia's venture arm also participating. The investment reflects the company's push beyond battery recycling into Redwood Energy, which repurposes used electric-vehicle batteries as power storage for data centres. In April 2026 Redwood announced a partnership with Rivian at Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant. See our climate tech guide.
What to watch
Watch Redwood Energy deployments, cathode production at scale, metal prices, any IPO preparation and policy changes affecting US battery supply chains. Our guide to climate tech startups compares Redwood with other clean energy companies.
Takeaways
Data centres and utilities may find cheaper, faster storage in second-life batteries. Founders can see how a strong founder reputation opens doors with industrial partners. Investors should note how commodity prices affect recycling margins.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What does Redwood Materials do?
Redwood Materials is a climate and energy / battery recycling, materials and energy storage company headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, United States. It was founded in 2017.
What is Redwood Materials's valuation?
Redwood Materials was valued at About US$6 billion as of October 2025, according to Wilson Sonsini. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Redwood Materials make?
Redwood Materials is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was Redwood Materials's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series e in Oct 2025: US$350M, at a valuation of About US$6B. Source: Wilson Sonsini.
Who are Redwood Materials's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Eclipse, NVentures, Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Ford.
Who founded Redwood Materials?
Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by JB Straubel (CEO).
Is Redwood Materials a public company?
No. Redwood Materials is a private company (private, venture backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is Redwood Materials headquartered?
Redwood Materials is headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, United States.