EV battery recycling startup secures seed funding for demonstration facility in the UK

HAMMERSMITH, U.K. - July 15, 2026 - PRLog -- Linca, the clean-technology company leading an £8.1 million UK battery minerals project with Jaguar Land Rover, LiBatt Recycling and WMG at the University of Warwick, has officially launched after securing the first NZ$5 million close of its seed funding round.

The investment will accelerate the scale-up of Linca's lithium-ion battery refining technology and support construction of its demonstration facility for the UK. The facility aims to prove the concept of domestic refining of lithium, nickel and cobalt recovered from end-of-life batteries. The funding round was led by Motion Capital and is expected to reach NZ$7 million. Other investors include Icehouse Ventures, K1W1, Booster, Aspire and Enterprise Angels.

The announcement comes as the UK continues to invest in lithium-ion battery manufacturing and recycling but faces a shortage of domestic refining capacity. Most battery "black mass" – the material produced after batteries are dismantled and processed – is still exported overseas for refining, despite containing valuable battery minerals needed for future electric vehicle production.

Linca (https://www.linca.co/) has developed a small-scale hydrometallurgical process that will allow for processing facilities to be located near regional recycling centres. This will enable recycled critical minerals to be refined closer to where batteries are collected.

"The UK has made significant progress in supporting battery manufacturing and recycling, but refining remains a gap in the supply chain," said Dr Ollie Crush, CEO of Linca. "Our technology is designed to help recover these critical materials domestically and support a more resilient, circular battery industry."

The UK project, backed by £4.05 million from the UK Department for Business and Trade through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK in 2025, will demonstrate how critical battery minerals can be recovered and refined within the UK. Construction of the demonstration facility is currently underway.

Originally developed within e-waste recycling pioneer Mint Innovation, Linca has now spun out as an independent business. Mint retains a minority shareholding, and the two companies will continue to leverage their complementary expertise.

As battery recycling volumes grow and European/UK recycling mandates increase over the coming decade, domestic refining capacity is expected to become an important part of building resiliency and compliance into the UK's battery supply chain. Linca's modular approach is designed to scale alongside the growth of battery recycling, without the cost and complexity of traditional large-scale refining plants.

A final NZ$2 million tranche of the seed round remains open to strategic investors aligned with Linca's vision of domestic, capital-efficient critical mineral recovery.