The Greater Noida-based LOHUM, a producer of sustainable battery raw materials through recycling, repurposing and low-carbon refining, will invest ₹2,000 crore over a six-year period in a new plant at Krishnagiri in western Tamil Nadu to produce Cathode Active Material (CAM) that is used in battery manufacture.
The company has procured 65 acres of land, and expects to start production at the 20-GWh plant in 18 months. “In the first phase, we plan to invest ₹400 crore over a two-year period,” Sachin Maheshwari, Head of Corporate Development, LOHUM, said on the sidelines of the CII-UAE Investopia, on Wednesday. The products will be supplied to battery manufacturers, including Ola, Exide, TVS and Amara Raja.
The company has seven plants in Noida, one in Gujarat, one in Krishnagiri and one in the UAE.
The plant will take 20,000 tonnes per annum of batteries for recycling and production of cobalt, nickel and lithium with each 1,000 tonne capacity; a pilot line for production of CAM, which is around 750 MWh (megawatt hours). This will be scaled up at the Krishnagiri plant to 20 GWh in phases. To begin with, the plant will produce 5 to 10 GWh, and this material is what goes in to Gigafactories, he said. “We are in touch with most of the vendors to supply the critical raw material,” he added.
The incentives include Production Linked Incentive and the Tamil Nadu government subsidy for capex, he said.
Maheshwari said the company is well equity funded and the goal is to see how to use its own equity to fund the building and take working capital for other things. “We are not a start-up any more. We are profitable and quite sizable,” he said, but did not disclose any financial data.
Asked if an IPO is on the cards, Maheshwari said, “Everything is open.”
The 6-year-old company has moved from being a ‘start-up’ to the world’s only company to have an end-to-end in-house ecosystem of battery recycling, battery repurposing, transition materials refining and CAM – integrated battery lifecycle management, he said.
In March, LOHUM raised $54 million (₹450 crore) in series B funding from Singularity Growth, Baring Private Equity, Cactus Venture Partners & Venture East, amongst other new and existing venture firms. This is to fuel its market expansion, scaling up recycling operations across India, and also expanding to new energy transition materials markets in North America, the EU, West Asia, Africa, and Asia. The development positions LOHUM at the forefront of circularity in critical minerals across , according to company information.
As a climate-tech company, it hosts single-point lithium ion battery recycling and re-use solutions to overcome industry-wide obstacles to sustainable energy storage. The critical lithium ion battery raw materials the company recovers and recirculates to the market lowers battery costs, reduces reliance on mining, and advances energy security for all, the company said.