Posted on June 22, 2022
SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Impossible Mining (YC W22), building responsible seabed mining & refining technology, today announced they have closed an additional $10.1 million in seed funding led by Justin Hamilton with additional participation from a select group of YC investors to develop and test the four-mile deep robotic collection system and to continue developing the Bio-Extraction technology.
“Lithium-ion battery markets will increase tenfold in the next decade, fueled by growth in EVs,” said Justin Hamilton, lead investor. “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.”
“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,” said Oliver Gunasekara, CEO & Co-Founder of Impossible Mining.
The list of investors include all three previous CEOs of ARM Holdings PLC (Mr. Simon Segars, Mr. Warren East and Sir Robin Saxby), existing investors Chalet.vc with the addition of Aureolis Ventures, CapitalX, Climate Collective, Futureland Ventures, Gaingels, Liquid 2 Ventures, Microventures, Newgen Venture, New Venture Order, Noveus Capital, Park Capital, Palrecha Capital, Pareta Ventures, Quiet Ventures, Rebel Fund, Soma Capital Fund, Starlight Ventures, Tango.vc, Y Combinator, Zillionize, plus a number of angel investors.
Impossible Mining also announces its key advisors:
Mr. Bob Galyen, Former CTO of CATL
Mr. Dan Lankford, Former CEO of AT&T Microelectronics – Europe
Mr. Justin Manley, AUV design expert
Mr. Simon Segars, Former CEO of ARM and former board member of SoftBank
Mr. Phil Straw, CEO of SoftIron, underwater expert
