DEScycle Secures Over €10M To Scale Critical Metals Recovery Platform

The funding spans multiple competitive grants, including €5 million from EU Horizon, €2.5 million from the EIC Accelerator, €1.5 million from Germany’s SPRIND, €1.04 million from Innovate UK Investor Partnerships, and €578,300 from a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. In addition the company raised €12.2 million in Series A funding in November 2024.

Founded as a DeepTech startup, DEScycle is developing a next-generation metals processing platform using eco-friendly deep eutectic solvents (DES) to recover critical and precious metals from waste streams, starting with electronic waste.

The company has built a modular, distributed system designed to recover metals closer to their source reducing reliance on traditional large-scale smelting infrastructure and long global supply chains.

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DEScycle says its ionometallurgy-based approach enables lower capital and energy requirements, making metal recovery more efficient and scalable while supporting the development of more resilient, domestic supply chains.

The latest funding will support industrial validation activities, including extended operation of its demonstration plant, additional testing, customer trials and integration of complementary technologies. The company is also developing digital product passports to improve traceability and transparency of recovered materials.

Construction of DEScycle’s demo plant in Teesside is ongoing with launch planned for the second half of 2026. The company is also working with partners including Mitsubishi GAP Group and Cisco with customer trials expected in 2026 as it moves toward commercial deployment.

Fred White, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at DEScycle, said, “Critical raw materials are becoming a strategic priority for both the UK and Europe, and that is creating growing demand for new metals processing infrastructure. Securing more than €10m in confirmed non-dilutive funding across competitive European and UK programmes is a strong signal of the importance of domestic metals recovery.

“For DEScycle, this funding helps de-risk deployment by allowing us to run our demo plant for longer, generate more data and make better design decisions before commercial scale-up. It also enables us to trial and integrate complementary technologies into our platform, helping us bring a stronger product to market.”

About DEScycle

Founded in 2020 DEScycle is a deep tech company transforming the metals industry through eco-friendly recovery and recycling methods. It uses non-toxic deep eutectic solvents to extract metals at low temperatures and low energy. The company aims to replace traditional highemission smelters and toxic chemical processes with cleaner alternatives.