New Delhi: Battery recycler Lohum, which has secured private equity funding over the past six years, is preparing to go public within the next two years as part of its growth strategy.

“We want to establish a strong foundation for the company before going public. We’ve decided to give ourselves an additional two years,” said Rajat Verma, Founder & CEO of Lohum Corporation, in conversation with ETAuto. Verma owns over 40 per cent of the company.

Founded in 2018, the company recycles critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, aluminium, and copper, claiming to achieve 99.9 per cent purity with its patented technology. It serves industries including batteries, green hydrogen, magnets, manufacturing, metallurgy, aerospace, and defence.

Lohum generated Rs 3 crore in its first year, reached break-even within two years, and recorded Rs 530 crore in revenue last year. This year, it is confident of joining the Rs 1,000 crore club.

With limited competition, the company holds a 90 per cent market share in India’s lithium-ion battery recycling sector. After raising $100 million in the last six years, it plans to secure an additional $200 million over the next two years, with a funding round set to begin in the next few months.

At present, it operates via eight facilities—seven in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and one in Gujarat. Globally, Lohum has joint ventures in the US, where it operates a 15.5 GWh facility, and in Sharjah, in partnership with the UAE government.

Road ahead

Critical minerals like copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements are essential for clean energy technologies, driving the production of batteries, electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and other green innovations. Lohum also plans to expand its recycling portfolio to include platinum group elements (PGEs) and rare earth elements (REEs).

The company, which produces advanced materials such as catalysts and Cathode Active Materials (CAM) from critical minerals, is also looking to establish CAM production capabilities for supply to lithium-ion battery gigafactories. This way, it aims to become India’s largest direct consumer of lithium by 2030. To support this ambition, Lohum is in talks with state governments to establish an integrated greenfield CAM facility, likely in Odisha or Andhra Pradesh.

“We aim to grow 5X in the next five years,” said Verma, highlighting the company’s plans to expand both vertically and horizontally. With around 100 people on its R&D team, Lohum is actively seeking to hire more.

Currently, 70 per cent of the battery recycler’s demand is met by the domestic market, with 30 per cent exported globally. The company aims to achieve a 50-50 split between domestic sales and exports in the future.

China’s dominance

China is the dominant player in the critical minerals market, largely due to the scale of operations of its local refiners, massive domestic consumption, and a strong focus on product purity.

India has critical mineral deposits across various regions, but domestic production is insufficient to meet the growing demand, leaving the country heavily reliant on imports.

Globally and in India, the focus is on recovering critical minerals from mine waste. To support this, the Indian government approved a Rs 16,300-crore National Critical Mineral Mission in January, with a total outlay of Rs 34,300 crore over seven years.

However, challenges such as low exploration levels, long gestation periods for mine operations, and bottlenecks in processing persist.

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