Jan 12 2021
Boston Metal today announced it raised $50 million in Series B funding, positioning the company to accelerate industrial-scale deployments of its molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) technology towards emissions-free steel. The financing was led by Piva Capital, BHP Ventures, and Devonshire Investors, the private investment firm affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. Existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Prelude Ventures, OGCI Climate Investments, and The Engine also participated in the round, reflecting strong ongoing support for the company and its recent progress.
“Boston Metal is ushering in a new era of metallurgy,” said Tadeu Carneiro, Chairman and CEO of Boston Metal. “Steel production has relied on the same basic formula for millennia, and revolutionizing such an industry requires a rare combination of team, technology, and partners. With this new round of funding, Boston Metal has brought together all of these elements and is positioned to deliver a future where steel production is efficient, modular and clean.”
Boston Metal’s MOE technology uses electricity to transform metals from a raw oxide form into high-purity molten metal products, facilitating CO2 emissions-free steel production from a wide array of iron ores in a potentially more efficient, less costly and more sustainable approach.
Building on the momentum of its Series A in 2018, this new funding round will allow Boston Metal to validate its patented inert anode technology at industrial-scale, further expand its world-class team, and begin to deploy its MOE technology with customers, starting with high-value ferroalloy production as it advances toward steel applications.
“Steel is the backbone of the industrialized world, with 1.9 billion tonnes produced each year to build transportation systems, skyscrapers and infrastructure,” said Bennett Cohen, Partner at Piva Capital. “Unfortunately, the production of steel is responsible for more than eight percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the time is now to identify a more sustainable and cost-effective solution. Boston Metal’s team of remarkable entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers will completely transform the steel industry by delivering a truly world-changing technology for producing emissions-free steel. We look forward to partnering with Tadeu and his team to bring this technology to market and make green steel a reality.”
“Our investment in Boston Metal complements the initiatives and partnerships we have underway to support decarbonisation options across our value chain and help drive long-term growth and profitability for BHP and its customers,” said Mark Frayman, Head of BHP Ventures.
“Innovation is at the heart of Boston Metal, but we also benefit greatly from MOE’s unique ability to leverage proven principles from both the steel and aluminum industries,” added Carneiro. “We are building a technology and a company that can scale to meet the immense challenge of decarbonizing steelmaking, and that new era of metallurgy is coming soon. We intend to deploy pilot plants globally within a few years’ time.”