Princeton Critical Minerals Raises $16M to Scale Lithium Production Technologies
The Princeton University spinout will use the funding to expand sales and commercial deployments of its revolutionary brine-based lithium production platform in the U.S. and South America.
Princeton Critical Minerals (PCM), a startup developing technologies to accelerate and increase lithium production yields from brine sources, has raised $16 million in combined equity and non-dilutive funding to address increasing demand for critical minerals used in energy storage, electrification, and AI infrastructure.
The financing includes an $11 million Series A round led by SOSV, with participation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Prospect Innovation, ASTOR Management AG, Black Forest Ventures, and a synergistic investment from New Jersey Economic Development Authority through the New Jersey Innovation Evergreen fund. The company has also recently secured more than $5 million in grant funding from the National Science Foundation, ARPA-E, and NJEDA.
Founded from research at Princeton University, PCM’s technology platform improves the efficiency and scalability of lithium production from brine resources, the mineral-rich, subterranean or industrial saltwater that holds over half the world’s lithium reserves and other critical minerals. Its systems combine significant evaporation enhancement, AI-enabled pond monitoring, and selective crystallization to help producers increase throughput while reducing energy use, chemical consumption, and operational complexity.
