New Zealand electronic waste start-up gets $37m
New Zealand’s Mint Innovation, a precious metals refiner that salvages electronic waste, has raised NZD 60m (USD 37m) in Series C funding featuring Australian PE firm Liverpool Partners.
Liverpool is a middle-market growth and buyout investor set up in 2012 that targets opportunities across Australia and New Zealand with a focus on social impact. It focuses on businesses seeking AUD 10-50m (USD 7-34m) in equity, with revenue of AUD 10-200m and EBITDA of AUD 2-20m.
Local investors Movac Partners, Icehouse Ventures, and K1W1 also participated. It follows an NZD 20m round led by Movac in 2021 with support from Icehouse and Blackbird Ventures. Icehouse and WNT Ventures were among the first investors after the company’s inception in 2016.
Mint claims to use natural biomass and smart chemistry to extract precious metals from e-waste in a low-carbon, local way. The company said its technology can be scaled to the need and size of any city where e-waste is produced, and it can be processed back into the local economy to be used in new technologies. It launched its first biorefinery late last year in Sydney.
“We struggled with opportunities that were multiple years away from even a pilot plant. This technology was proven, the capital wasn’t just about conceptualisation, but it was for real enablement and scale,” Jonathan Lim, founder of Liverpool, told The Australian Financial Review. “Not only is this about waste recycling, but it has the ability to change the paradigm for mining.”
Much of the business and investment case around Mint is based on its impact credentials in metals recycling. The company points to data from the Global E-waste Monitor that indicates only 17% of the 53.6 million tons of e-waste produced globally per year is properly recycled. The waste not only contains metals needed in a range of everyday commodities, but it also contains harmful toxins.
“A huge priority for the team will be growing and investing in our team so we will be able to successfully deploy this technology to help countries, companies and consumers lower their carbon footprint and accelerate circular supply of green metals,” Renee Jameson, Mint’s head of marketing, said in a statement.
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