Tozero, a German lithium-ion battery recycling startup, has raised EUR 3.5 million (~USD 3.5 million) in a pre-seed funding round led by Atlantic Labs. Investors including Verve Ventures, Possible Ventures, and angel investors such as  Jochem Heizmann (former Volkswagen board member) also joined the round of funding.

The funding will support the construction of the company’s prototype plant in Munich, Germany which is also reported to be the location where a third of Europe’s lithium-ion batteries are planned to be produced by 2030.

Founded in July 2022, Tozero uses a novel recycling process to recover raw-materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt from lithium-ion batteries and convert them into battery-grade materials for use by battery producers. The company claims that it would be the first company in Europe to be able to recover allcritical materials that exist in a lithium-ion battery.