Redwood Materials

Quick read

Redwood Materials, battery recycling and critical materials company, founded April 2017, headquartered in Carson City, Nevada. Founded by JB Straubel (former Tesla CTO), it recovers lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper from end-of-life batteries and manufactures cathode active material domestically. It has since expanded into grid-scale energy storage under the Redwood Energy brand, redeploying second-life EV batteries to power data centers and strengthen the U.S. grid.

Key facts

Founded

April 2017

Founders

JB Straubel

Employees

1000+

Sectors

climate, hardware

Website

redwoodmaterials.com

Mission

Redwood Materials builds a domestic circular supply chain for critical battery materials — recovering lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper from end-of-life batteries, manufacturing cathode active material and copper foil in the U.S., and deploying second-life battery packs as grid-scale energy storage to power data centers and the national grid.

Recent activity

• May 2026leadership
  Hired former Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja as its new CFO. Ahuja and founder JB Straubel both left Tesla in 2019 and Ahuja is a personal investor in the company. techcrunch.com
• Mar 2026product
  Announced Redwood Energy's grid-scale storage product, redeploying retired EV batteries to power data centers before recovering their critical minerals at end-of-life. x.com
• Jan 2026fundraise
  Closed $425M Series E led by Eclipse with participation from Google (Alphabet) and others, valuing the company at over $6 billion and bringing total capital raised to more than $2 billion. sacra.com
• Jan 2026fundraise
  Google made its first investment in Redwood Materials as part of the Series E round. tracxn.com
• Mar 2026product
  Opened a new R&D center in San Francisco focused on cathode production and next-generation energy storage products. x.com
• Jan 2026product
  Summarised 2025 milestones: launched Redwood Energy, opened facilities in South Carolina and San Francisco, produced 60,000 MT of critical minerals, and deployed the largest microgrid in North America powered by second-life batteries. x.com
• Oct 2025fundraise
  Closed a $350M Series E tranche led by Eclipse VC with participation from NVIDIA's NVentures, earmarked for critical materials and energy storage growth. x.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• JB Straubel · Founder & CEO
  Brief →
• Deepak Ahuja · CFO (incoming, May 2026)
• Kevin Kassekert · COO
• Cal Lankton · Chief Commercial Officer

Sources

• 'Too early' to talk IPO, Redwood Materials' incoming CFO says | TechCrunch
• Former Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja joins Redwood Materials | CNBC
• Redwood Materials valuation, funding & news | Sacra
• Redwood Materials 2026 Funding Rounds & Investors | Tracxn
• Redwood Materials | LinkedIn
• Redwood Materials - Wikipedia
• Redwood Materials $350M Series E announcement | X
• Redwood Materials San Francisco R&D Center | X

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Frequently asked