NordicNinja-backed startup opens battery recycling plant in first for Europe

Munich startup tozero has opened what it says is Europe's first industrial-scale demonstration plant capable of recovering lithium, graphite and nickel-cobalt blends from end-of-life batteries at commercial scale.

The plant, located at Chemical Park Gendorf in Germany, was built in six months. It can process more than 1,500 tonnes of battery waste annually, producing over 100 tonnes of high-purity lithium carbonate – the equivalent of keeping 10,000 EV battery packs out of landfill each year.

Global lithium demand is forecast to quadruple by 2030, while EU graphite demand could rise 25-fold by 2040. China controls 90% of global graphite refining and 99% of Europe's lithium is imported.

Tozero's proprietary process is acid-free and hydrometallurgical, running recovery in a single cycle. The company says output is pure enough to feed directly back into manufacturing – for batteries, ceramics, construction and lubricants.

Founded in 2022 by CEO Sarah Fleischer, a mechanical engineer and serial entrepreneur, and Dr. Ksenija Milicevic Neumann, a metallurgy specialist, the company has scaled its technology 25,000 times from lab to industrial operations in under four years.

"Recycling isn't just a pilot project," said Fleischer. "It can be delivered at a level capable of giving Europe a homegrown, circular supply of critical materials its future runs on."

The milestones have come quickly. In April 2024, Tozero became the first European company to deliver recycled lithium to commercial customers. In February 2025, it became the first to qualify 100% recycled graphite for use in battery cell production at industrial scale.

Pilots have been completed with BMW and MAN, demonstrating a lithium recovery rate above 80% – already meeting the EU's 2031 recovery target ahead of schedule.

Investors backing the company include Honda, NordicNinja, Atlantic Labs, and infrastructure group JGC. The company has raised €17m to date.

The Gendorf plant is designed as a blueprint for a full-scale commercial facility planned for 2030, targeting a capacity of 45,000+ tonnes of battery waste per year.

tozero is one of a small cohort of European startups – alongside Germany's cylib – racing to industrialise battery recycling before Chinese import dependency becomes a structural liability for the continent's energy transition.