Moment Energy, a British Columbia-based company that recycles used electric vehicle batteries, has announced a $40 million investment to help fund the construction of a large factory in Texas and its triple counting.
The company, which is headquartered outside of Vancouver, has now raised more than $100 million. Moment Energy taps into the growing demand for energy storage, which supports data centers, utilities, residential uses and industrial operations.
“We are building a new generation of energy infrastructure that can be used quickly, produced at home and powered by existing battery sources,” said Edward Chiang, founder and CEO of Moment Energy, in a statement.
Launched in 2019, Moment Energy was co-founded by Chiang, Sumreen Rattan, Gabriel Soares and Gurmesh Sidhu, all engineering graduates of Simon Fraser University in B.C. The group’s first battery system shipment arrived in 2021 on Quadra Island, off the coast of Vancouver Island.
The startup plans to start this year at a 200,000-square-foot gigafactory outside Austin, Chiang previously told Sustainable Biz Canada. The company expects its workforce to reach 250 once the facility is operational, up from more than 70 today.
Moment Energy is already delivering commercial projects and has customers across North America, including major technology companies and international airports.
The company’s model uses the natural life cycle of EV batteries, which can retain 70-80% of their original capacity after about 10 to 20 years of use – well past the end of their vehicle life. Moment Energy disassembles those batteries, tests their remaining power and reassembles them into stationary energy storage systems that the startup says can last up to 30 years.
The company has also received multiple safety certifications, which it says makes it the only supplier that can use recycled battery systems in the built environment “without special exemptions.”
The Series B round was led by Evok Innovations, with participation from Liberty Mutual Investments, W23 Global Fund and Acario, the venture capital of Tokyo Gas. Existing investors including Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Voyager Ventures and In-Q-Tel also joined the round.
“Moment Energy is the only player in the EV battery recycling industry that has proven safety and durability are unmatched,” said Marty Reed, a partner at Evok Innovations, adding that the company is in a position to implement energy storage systems “at scale.”
Moment Energy operates in a growing sector. Other companies focused on battery recycling include Redwood Materials, launched by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, and RePurpose Energy. Battery recycling players include Cirba Solutions, Ascend Elements, Li-Cycle and Ecobat — with Redwood Materials active in recycling as well.
