Lithium-ion battery recycler Lohum plans to expand international presence

With growing demand for batteries in the mobility sector of India, the company is eyeing a three-fold jump in its topline at over 300 crore in FY23

NEW DELHI: Lithium-ion battery recycler Lohum Cleantech is looking at expanding its international presence and setting up a plant in the US within the next one year. In an interview, Rajat Verma, CEO, Lohum Cleantech, said that, the company also plans to expand its presence in the European Union

“We will continue to add to our capacity in India, and also invest in the US and EU to cater to the global EV ecosystem
Our immediate target is to set up a facility in the United States for upstream capacities. That facility will work on the hub and spoke model where the US becomes a spoke feeding into the Indian hub,” he said.

Verma noted that the downstream capacity of the company will be entirely in India, while the upstream capacity will be distributed in India, US, and over time, it will also be developed in Europe.

Talking on investments in the technology front, Verma said that R&D will be Lohum’s key focus and the company will continue to develop low-carbon technologies. “R&D in sustainable materials is at the core of our company. We will continue to develop low-carbon technologies for various other critical, rare, and precious materials to enable Lohum and India to be at the forefront of the energy storage space,” he said.

On plans for a new round of fundraise, Verma said, “While we are sufficiently capitalized at the moment for our immediate expansion, in the future we will reach out to investors at the right point of time. We anticipate the next fundraise to be in the $100 million ballpark.”

With growing demand for batteries in the mobility sector of India, the company is eyeing a three-fold jump in its topline at over 2300 crore in FY23.

On growth prospects of the lithium ion battery industry, Verma said that the industry was set to grow 20 times by 2026 on the back of rising demand for EV batteries, and stationary Energy Storage Systems(ESS).

He, however, noted that dominance of just a few countries in the supply chain of raw materials help them control the prices of critical battery metals, and make importing materials for large scale domestic battery manufacturing unsustainable. He also noted that the carbon footprint of mining and refining of raw materials that power EV batteries has the potential to undermine climate action.

Stressing on the need for battery recycling, he said: “The millions of un-recycled batteries that end up in the waste stream after the end of first life, pose a severe environmental hazard.”