TDK Ventures Invests in R3 Lithium to Strengthen U.S. Domestic Lithium Supply
TDK Corporation has announced that its corporate venture capital arm, TDK Ventures, Inc., has invested in R3 Lithium, a company focused on recovering and refining lithium from recycled battery materials. The investment marks R3 Lithium as the 55th company in TDK Ventures’ global portfolio and underscores TDK’s continued focus on technologies supporting the energy transition and more resilient critical-mineral supply chains.
The investment is part of R3 Lithium’s oversubscribed $15 million Series A financing round, which also included Integral GlobalTech Partners, Axial Partners and other investors. The funding is expected to support R3 Lithium as it upgrades its commercial-scale lithium carbonate recovery facility in Covington, Georgia, and advances the site toward continuous commercial production.
R3 Lithium owns and is upgrading a 154,000-square-foot facility in Covington that is designed to recover lithium carbonate from recycled battery materials known as black mass. The company demonstrated the production of recycled lithium carbonate at the facility in 2025, prior to R3 Lithium’s acquisition of the plant.
The TDK facility uses a calciner-based crystallization and water-based precipitation process designed to extract and refine lithium carbonate directly from recycled black mass. By integrating these processes at a single site, R3 Lithium aims to reduce reliance on primary mining and overseas refining for this stage of the lithium supply chain.
The TDK company is targeting continuous commercial production in 2027.
A Lithium-First Approach to Battery Recycling
R3 Lithium’s strategy centers on a focused approach to critical-mineral recovery. Rather than attempting to recover multiple materials simultaneously as its primary objective, the company is prioritizing lithium carbonate as its principal product.
This TDK lithium-first strategy is intended to address a major challenge facing the battery-recycling industry: moving from successful demonstrations and pilot-scale operations to consistent, commercial-scale production.
The TDK Covington facility provides an established foundation for this approach. It has approximately 30,000 metric tons of annual shredding capacity and a 2,500-metric-ton lithium carbonate recovery line. The site also has physical space that could allow the company to expand its processing capacity in the future.
Another feature of the operation is its single-site integration. R3 Lithium plans to conduct feedstock shredding and lithium refining at the same facility, creating an integrated pathway from recycled battery materials to refined lithium carbonate. In addition to lithium carbonate, the company expects to generate additional revenue by selling concentrated metal oxides (CMO) recovered from the remaining battery materials.
This integrated model is designed to provide multiple commercial outputs while keeping lithium recovery at the center of the business.
Building Commercial Traction
R3 Lithium has also established commercial relationships intended to support the future growth of its operations. The company holds long-term offtake agreements with counterparties, including Trafigura. Based on stated pricing and volume assumptions, the agreements have an estimated aggregate potential value of approximately $1 billion over their full terms.
These agreements are intended to provide a commercial pathway for R3 Lithium’s future lithium carbonate production while helping establish demand for domestically recovered battery materials.
The company’s objective is to build on its existing facility and demonstrated production capabilities to create a dependable source of recycled lithium carbonate for customers across the battery and energy sectors.
A New Capital Strategy Built on Previous Experience
It Ventures’ investment in R3 Lithium also reflects its familiarity with the underlying technology and its evolution over time. It Ventures had previously invested in the technology’s initial development through Battery Resourcers / Ascend Elements.
Following a new diligence process, TDK Ventures determined that R3 Lithium’s restructured approach presented an opportunity to support the technology through its next stage of development. The new investment is focused on helping the company transition from demonstrated capabilities to reliable, continuous industrial production.
“N3 Lithium brings together an experienced team, demonstrated lithium recovery at commercial scale, and a clear focus on building dependable domestic supply,” said Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures. “We believe this team can help make recycled batteries an important source of America’s critical minerals. Our ambition is to support that journey with more than capital, connecting R3 Lithium with relevant expertise across TDK as it turns demonstrated capability into reliable industrial production.”
Linh Austin, President and CEO of R3 Lithium, emphasized the importance of expanding domestic lithium recovery and refining capacity.
“Strengthening domestic lithium recovery and refining is essential to building a more reliable U.S. battery supply chain,” said Austin. “R3 Lithium is setting a new pace for domestic supply with a proven facility that has already demonstrated production at scale, paired with the focused capital model needed to reach continuous commercial operations.”
Strategic Support from TDK
Beyond its financial investment, TDK Ventures plans to provide R3 Lithium with access to expertise across TDK’s global organization. This support is expected to include connections with specialists in energy, materials, manufacturing and industrial transformation.
It Ventures will also explore potential technical collaborations between R3 Lithium and TDK Corporation business units with expertise in areas such as process control, power systems, sensing technologies and manufacturing quality.
It collaboration reflects TDK Ventures’ broader investment model, which combines venture capital with access to the technical knowledge, global markets and industrial capabilities of its parent company.
For R3 Lithium, this support could complement its efforts to scale the Covington facility and establish consistent commercial production.
About TDK Corporation
It Corporation (TSE: 6762) is a global technology company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with a history spanning more than 90 years. Under the tagline “In Everything, Better,” TDK develops technologies designed to support advances across electronics, energy, transportation and industrial applications.
It TDKcompany’s portfolio includes passive electronic components, sensors and sensor systems, power supplies, lithium-ion and solid-state batteries, magnetic heads, and AI and enterprise software solutions. Its products are marketed under brands including TDK, InvenSense, Micronas, Tronics, TDK-Lambda, TDK SensEI and ATL.
It serves customers across automotive, information and communication technology, industrial equipment and other markets. In fiscal 2026, the company reported total sales of $16.6 billion and employed approximately 107,000 people worldwide.
About TDK Ventures
Established in 2019 as a wholly owned subsidiary of It Corporation, TDK Ventures invests in startups developing technologies in areas such as materials science, energy, power and related sectors.
The corporate venture capital firm focuses on supporting innovation across digital and energy transformation markets, including robotics and industrial technologies, next-generation transportation, mixed reality and IoT/IIoT applications.
In addition to capital, TDK Ventures provides portfolio companies with access to technical expertise and global markets through TDK’s international network.
About R3 Lithium
R3 Lithium operates a commercial-scale lithium carbonate recovery facility in Covington, Georgia. The company focuses on recovering and refining lithium carbonate from recycled battery black mass using a lithium-first extraction process.
Its recovered lithium carbonate is intended to re-enter the battery supply chain for applications including energy storage systems, defense technologies and electric vehicles.
Founded in 2026, R3 Lithium is privately held and headquartered in Covington, Georgia. The company’s investment from It Ventures is intended to support the continued development of its commercial-scale recovery operation and its goal of reaching continuous production in 2027.
Source Link: https://tdk-ventures.com/