Cohort Announcement for the Battery & Critical Materials Investment Readiness Programme 2025

Meet the Cohort

• Ampoxe Ltd

  Ampoxe is startup developing a game-changing solid-state battery technology for transport electrification (road, rail, sea and air). Unlike other competitors who focus on one chemistry and one type of solid-state electrolyte, our platform is chemistry-agnostic, supporting both metal-ion and metallic anode configurations tailored to specific applications. Our innovation is underpinned by proprietary materials selection and a drop-in manufacturing process designed to align with existing production infrastructure.

• Ascension Earth Resources Ltd

  Ascension Earth Resources is a University of Oxford spin-out developing sustainable technologies for critical mineral recovery. Focused on rare earth elements (REEs), Ascension replaces conventional mining with a geothermal-powered, in-situ extraction process that minimises environmental impact. Its science-led platform integrates geochemistry, volcanology, and geophysics to unlock critical resources essential to the energy transition.

• Battery Minerals

  Battery Minerals, a UK-based technology company, is pioneering a novel recycling process (IP acquired from Johnson Matthey in 2023) to recover lithium chemicals from end-of-life battery scrap. The technology boosts lithium recovery rates to >95%, reduces costs, and enables recycling of low-value chemistries. Unlike capital-heavy incumbents, Battery Minerals’ approach lowers the minimum viable scale, supporting a delocalised network of operations that deliver cost, efficiency, and resilience benefits. Pilot-scale deployment is planned for 2026 ahead of commercial trials and deployment.

• Battery Vault Ltd

  Battery Vault is the lead generation platform for SMEs in the battery value chain. We connect raw material suppliers, active material producers, equipment makers, component manufacturers, and service providers with buyers and partners worldwide.  Built for smaller companies often overlooked by existing platforms, Battery Vault makes it easier to showcase expertise, secure qualified leads, and grow market presence. By focusing on visibility and connections, we unlock new business opportunities for SMEs driving innovation across the global battery industry.

• Carbon Forest Products

  Carbon Forest Products (CFP) is a materials discovery house transforming atmospheric carbon from renewable waste streams into next-generation materials. Our IP-first platform delivers battery-grade graphite for energy storage and tunable carbon composites for advanced industries – reducing supply chain risk while powering innovation across the world’s most advanced sectors.

• Continu

  Continu is a UK and Ireland specialist in Backup Power and Battery Energy Storage Solutions, trusted by over 300 clients across critical industries.  Founded in 2010, we help businesses tackle power quality issues, soaring energy costs, and the complexity of backup systems. Our Endless Energy Accelerator Framework delivers tailored design, trusted installation, training, seamless support, and proactive monitoring. Vendor-neutral and award-winning, Continu partners with major OEMs to provide continuous power, cost savings, sustainability, and future-ready energy independence.

• Crobe Renewables

  Crobe pioneers UK plug-and-play biotech platform, transforming brewery wastewater into SAF, high-value green chemicals, and critical materials magnesium and phosphorus, solving a £500 million disposal headache for UK breweries whilst decarbonising aviation. Through AI-enabled precision fermentation and curated microbial toolkits, Crobe owns the biology that closes the gap between sustainability targets and bottom-line performance. This circular innovation delivers verified Scope 3 reductions across four ESG categories. From bioprocessing to plant design, Crobe’s radical collaboration ethos exemplifies how cross-sector allyship accelerates net zero.

• Cumulus Energy Storage Ltd

  Cumulus Energy Storage Ltd’s vision is to be the ‘technology of choice for long-duration (4 to 24-hour) stationary energy storage’. Applications include electricity network constraint management and private-wire microgrids, electrification of mining/metal processing industries and enabling low-cost green Hydrogen. Cumulus’s rechargeable copper-zinc battery technology is protected by patents granted in 16 countries. Its electrolyte is biodegradable, and the membrane is free of ‘forever chemicals’. The battery uses abundant metals, so can go from ‘Minerals to MWs’ within the same continent.

• DEScycle

  DEScycle is a UK deep-tech company pioneering clean recovery of critical metals from e-waste. Using proprietary Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) chemistry, we replace smelting with a low-energy, low-carbon process that achieves over 99% recovery. Our capital-light, modular technology enables local, circular supply chains for metals like copper, gold, and palladium. Backed by Cisco, Mitsubishi, and a JV with GAP Group, DEScycle is building its first UK demo plant as a springboard for global expansion.

• Envol Labs

  Envol Labs is developing a novel grid battery storage solution, which will provide local energy security and resilience, as well as deliver a substantial carbon saving. We are using smart AI prediction to optimise the system.

• GSA (Environmental)

  Since 1992 GSA (Environmental) Ltd has striven to develop new ways to approach historic problems within the petrochemical and large-scale processing industries to clean up waste and recover by-products for a cleaner environment. Specialising in metals recovery, GSA provides engineering consultancy and chemical process R&D services, allowing more efficiency, higher and easier compliancy all whilst contributing to a greener future.

• Infiniti Recycling

  Infiniti Recycling is a deep tech startup transforming how lithium-ion batteries are recycled. Our novel direct recycling technology extracts and preserves valuable materials from both end-of-life batteries and manufacturing scrap. Unlike conventional methods, it avoids the energy-intensive recreation of active materials, enabling direct reuse in new batteries. This approach dramatically reduces emissions, lowers costs, and enhances circularity, while building secure, localised supply chains essential for the global energy transition.

• Ionic Recovery

  Ionic Recovery (IRL) is a UK SME focused on the cost-effective recovery of low concentrations of Rare Earth element from mixed and complex wastes, including magnet residues, mobile phones and waste electronics from Automotive and green energy sources. IRL has a proprietary process that enable the direct targeting and recovery of the REE at high purity levels. IRL is focused on a range of high value REE applications creating a full value chain.

• Positive Traction

  Formed in 2021 and based in Chesterfield, Positive Traction are engineering solution providers, focusing on the integration of battery technology in transportation. Specialising in diesel to battery locomotive conversions, Positive Traction delivers a cleaner, more efficient, cost-effective solution that manages obsolescence and allows existing assets to meet Net Zero targets. Alongside discontinuous electrification, battery locomotive conversions can close gaps between the engineering challenges on the network to create a safer, decarbonised solution with minimal need for reclassification, recertification or retraining.

• Powderloop Technology

  a UK-based manufacturer of advanced hardmetal and cermet powders for demanding applications across diverse industries. Using our patent-pending resource-efficient technology and supported by Innovate UK funding, we are developing sustainable powders that significantly reduce the use of critical minerals like tungsten and cobalt. In collaboration with global partners, our materials are engineered to deliver exceptional wear, thermal, and corrosion resistance, while strengthening supply chain security and contributing to UK and global sustainability goals.

• Pure Alchemi

  Pure Alchemi develops proprietary chemical looping combustion (CLC) technology that delivers zero-emission, fuel-agnostic power generation while recovering strategic metals through add on processes.
  It offers turnkey CLC-based solutions that transform carbon-based waste into clean energy and valuable byproducts, e.g. rare earth elements and other critical raw materials, providing sovereign resilience in the critical mineral supply chain.
  Backed by Shell, NATO, and IUK, Pure Alchemi provides solutions for governments and industry to recover critical raw materials from waste while decarbonising infrastructure.

• Rovjok UK

  Rovjok provides market intelligence that de-risks critical mineral supply chains. We provide world-class data, research, and analytics covering the entire value chain, from mine to market. We have worked with major governments, DARPA, and industry leaders like Alcoa, Anglo American, and Northvolt, delivering actionable stategic insights across key critical minerals. Our risk tracking and advanced market models empower clients to navigate geopolitical and market volatility with superior forecasting, strategic planning, and enhanced supply chain resilience.

• Seloxium

  Seloxium is a University of Oxford spin-out company, focused on utilising a novel, patented technology to recycle industrial & mine waste, recovering valuable & critical metals. As such, Seloxium is poised to play an important role in the wider circular economy, recovering metals which are vital for the green revolution, ensuring a local, secure and reliable supply, and decreasing the need to source them in other ways such as via mining, with the significant environmental and cost savings that brings.

• Vanadion

  We are a spin-off company from Imperial College London, built on a patented technology for sustainable mineral recovery. Our core expertise lies in innovative vanadium extraction and purification from industrial waste streams, addressing both economic and environmental challenges. In addition, we possess extensive knowledge and capabilities in recovering other critical minerals essential to the UK, such as nickel. By leveraging our research-driven approach and industrial partnerships, we aim to strengthen the UK’s supply chain resilience in critical materials.

• Volklec

  Volklec is the UK’s only independent battery cell manufacturer. Volklec is employing a long-term partnerships strategy that delivers proven licensed technology, advanced manufacturing expertise and an industrial scale supply chain to become a global leader in battery cell manufacturing. Volklec’s strategy offers a lower risk and faster speed to market than competitors in this industry providing customers, suppliers, investors and UK government with a viable route to localised supply of this vital product for UK industry.

• Walker Subsea Engineering

  Since 2011, our team has been providing engineering solutions for marine operations and underwater vehicles. Applying offshore energy sector expertise, together with the latest developments in automotive technology, we have opportunity to re-define transport. Our D-Sea battery pack, and Subsea A-Flux motor enable a new dimension in goods transport, designed for mass commercial take-up. Connecting island & coastal communities, we offer the opportunity to drastically reduce congestion, and reduce CO2 emissions, without the need to build new infrastructure.