Impossible Mining Closes $10.1 Million in Seed Funding
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Impossible Mining recently closed $10.1 million in seed funding and announced its key advisors. I recently interviewed the CEO of Impossible Mining, Oliver Gunasekara, for a two-part interview series that can be viewed here and here.
According to the press release, the funding was led by Justin Hamilton and had additional participation from a select group of YC investors. The goal is is to develop and test the four-mile deep robotic collection system and continue the development of the company’s bio-extraction technology.
Hamilton shared thoughts about the battery markets being fueled by the growth in EVs and emphasized the importance of looking to the seabed, as it has the largest global resource of battery metals.
“Lithium-ion battery markets will increase tenfold in the next decade, fueled by growth in EVs. The deep seabed contains the largest global resource of battery metals. The Impossible Mining team has demonstrated its robotics technology showing the capabilities for selective pickup, rising to the challenge of accessing these metals in an environmentally responsible way.”
Oliver Gunasekara, CEO and co-founder of Impossible Mining, highlighted the importance of the U.S. having independent and secure access to battery metals.
“The US needs independent, secure access to critical battery metals. We are excited to accelerate the production of our deep water robots with this injection of capital, and to prove to both regulators and stakeholders that we can achieve what dredge-based technology can’t — the preservation of the seafloor environment.”
In my recent interview with Oliver, he told me that what led him to cofound Impossible Mining was an event that happened on land — far away from the deepest parts of the oceans where these critical polymetallic nodules lay. Oliver lives in the Bay Area, and in 2020, that area was impacted by the worst wildfires he’d ever experienced.
“The sky went orange and I know it was quite well-documented. The air quality was dreadful. And at that point, I really kind of told myself that if I’m going to do another company — another startup — it needs to be in the climate tech space because I really feel that we don’t have a huge amount of time to make an impact on the climate crisis.”
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