Japanese financial services giant Mizuho Bank has entered into a share subscription agreement with Altilium Metals alongside a $2.5m (£1.96m) investment.
The firm has made the investment in the lithium-ion battery recycling company through its Transition Equity Investment Facility.
As well as Mizuho, Altilium also counts fellow Japanese company Marubeni Corporation amongst its shareholders.
Founded in 2020, Altilium operates a demonstration plant that recycles lithium-ion batteries used in products such as electric vehicles to produce low-carbon and sustainable recycled battery materials.
It aims to build a large-scale commercial plant in the UK to establish a business model that handles everything in-house, from battery recovery to the production of battery materials, and build a circular supply chain for rare metals.
Mizuho’s Transition Equity Investment Facility commits equity investments towards seed or early-stage projects to support clients in funding their sustainability initiatives.
It said that through sharing both opportunity and risk through such investment, “Mizuho aims to co-create social value and contribute to the sustainability of the environment and society”.
Mizuho also said it “recognises that being conscious of the interconnectedness of a wide range of themes is critical to achieving a sustainable society and economy”.
Using this methodology, and with international shortages and resource constraints becoming more severe, the company said “shifting to a circular economy is essential and of escalating importance worldwide, as it will also serve to address climate change and preserve natural capital”.
As a result, the bank said that it had positioned a circular economy as a “focus area” for sustainable business, and alongside Marubeni, would support the growth of Altilium.
Through this investment, Mizuho will also further expand its technical and industrial knowledge of lithium-ion battery recycling and take on the challenge of developing concrete solutions to solve social issues, it said.
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