Paris Startup Lithosquare Raises €21.3 Million Funding

The round was co-led by World Fund and Kindred Capital, with participation from Daphni, Omnes Capital and Ovni Capital. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the discovery and development of critical metal deposits as existing supply chains struggle to meet rising global demand.

Lithosquare was founded in 2024 by Aymeric Préveral-Etcheverry, with Simon Leclair joining shortly after as COO. The company uses a combination of foundational AI, geological expertise and real-world data to accelerate the discovery of critical minerals needed for the energy transition.

Its platform helps exploration companies generate more targets, identify deposits faster, and improve confidence in drilling decisions.

Lithosquare estimates that by 2040, the supply gap for key metals such as copper, lithium, and nickel could reach €299.4 billion ($350 billion). Demand for lithium essential for EV batteries and grid storage is expected to surge by more than 400%, while copper demand could rise by around 50%, driven by electrification, AI data centres, and grid expansion.

The company argues that recycling alone will not meet this demand, with more than 1,000 new deposits needing to be discovered. Today’s exploration processes remain slow and manual, often taking 7 to 15 years from initial surveys to discovery, with geologists spending up to 80% of their time on data processing.

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Lithosquare says its platform addresses this by combining AI with science-based geological models moving beyond traditional pattern-recognition tools. This approach enables more accurate targeting and faster decision-making reducing analysis timelines from months to days and improving efficiency by up to 10x.

Designed to work alongside geologists, the platform enhances human expertise rather than replacing it allowing teams to focus on interpretation and discovery.

This can improve precision, reduce unnecessary drilling and emissions, and speed up the development of new mineral supply.

Lithosquare positions itself as part of a new wave of European technology aimed at strengthening long-term supply chain resilience and reducing reliance on dominant players such as China, which currently controls roughly half of global rare earths extraction.

The company plans to use the funding to expand its expert team, advance development of its platform, and scale its global presence. The founders are already working with mining companies across the United States, Europe, Africa and Latin America

“We spent years working in mineral exploration and watched the same bottleneck slow every project: too much time processing data, not enough time on actual geology and fieldwork. Lithosquare turbocharges geologists and exploration teams by bringing together deep geological science and AI to fundamentally rethink how mineral deposits are discovered, accelerate exploration, and support the energy transition at scale,” said Aymeric Préveral-Etcheverry, co-founder and CEO, Lithosquare.