Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) – BMW has announced that Lilac Solutions Inc will be investing in the lithium technology startup Lilac Solutions Inc. This investment is to make it more cost-effective to manufacture electric vehicle batteries metal.

Lilac, a privately held company, is among a growing group of tech developers looking for ways to extract lithium from saltwater brines more efficiently, with lower water consumption, and faster than traditional evaporation systems.

BMW already purchases lithium from China’s Ganfeng Lithium Company and other traditional producers. It said that it views Lilac’s technology a means to increase global production as the demand for EVs grows.

Kasper Sage, a venture capitalist at BMW i Ventures said that this holds the potential to become a new extraction technique which allows for more green lithium.

Lilac has announced that the German automaker, together with Sumitomo Corp’s investment arm Presidio Ventures (SK Materials Co), will participate in Lilac’s Series B financing round.

BMW did not disclose its investment amount. However, the sum of all investors who announced it on Wednesday was below $20 million according to regulatory filings. T. Rowe Price was among the first $130 million round of funding for Lilac’s Series A, which was announced last month.

Lilac intends to use these funds to build a U.S. facility to manufacture ion exchange beads that are essential to the extraction process.

The company last month agreed to use its technology https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/australias-lake-resources-teams-up-with-clean-tech-firm-lilac-develop-argentina-2021-09-21 to develop a lithium project in Argentina with Lake Resources NL.

Lilac’s main focus is on the reliability and scaleability of its technology. Lilac’s chief operating officer Dave Snydacker said that this has been well received by members of the supply chains.

Lilac has many peers, including EnergySource Minerals LLC (privately held) and Energy Exploration Technologies Inc (privately held), as well Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. Standard Lithium Ltd. and E3 Metals Corp.