Redwood Materials, the U.S.-based battery recycling and materials company founded by former Tesla executive JB Straubel, is cutting about 5% of its workforce following a recent $350 million fundraising round, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Nevada-based company employs roughly 1,200 workers, meaning the reduction affects several dozen positions. The move comes just weeks after Redwood announced its Series E investment in October, which lifted the company’s valuation to about $6 billion.
See also: Redwood Materials Begins Operations at New South Carolina Campus
Founded in 2017, Redwood initially focused on recovering critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt from battery manufacturing scrap, used consumer electronics, and end-of-life electric vehicle batteries.
The recovered materials are sold back into the battery supply chain, including to customers such as Panasonic. The company has since expanded into cathode active material production.
See also: GM Expands Battery Supply to Redwood Materials for Energy Storage Projects
Redwood has also entered the stationary energy storage market by repurposing used EV batteries for grid-scale applications, a segment that has grown rapidly alongside the expansion of artificial intelligence data centers. As of June, the company had accumulated more than 1 gigawatt-hour of batteries for this reuse business.
