Future 50 ranking, Li-Cycle earns top three

With lithium quadrupling in price over the past year, it's a great time to own this mineral, and the good times extend to Canada-based Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., which recycles metals from electronic waste – including nickel, copper and cobalt, but especially the lithium in consumer and electric vehicle batteries. In recognition for its incredible growth and potential, Corporate Knights has selected Li-Cycle as one of Canada's fastest-growing sustainable companies.

"We are thrilled to be recognized by Corporate Knights for our rapid growth as a clean technology company in Canada," said Ajay Kochnar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle. "Li-Cycle is proud to play a key role in helping build a more sustainable future by leveraging our innovative technologies to recover the valuable resources contained within lithium-ion batteries through recycling."

Based on existing supply deals with industrial clients such as General Motors and LG, Li-Cycle estimates it could supply 15% of North America's battery manufacturing capacity by 2025.

Due to this potential, as well as several in-depth factors, Corporate Knights – a media, research and financial information products company based in Canada that has been producing global corporate and fund rankings for nearly 20 years – has selected Li-Cycle for the number three spot in its Future 50 Fastest-Growing Sustainable Companies in Canada ranking.

The ranking is designed to highlight emerging Canadian companies whose business activities align with the transition to a clean economy. The revenue, capital expenditure, acquisitions, research and development, and employment of more than 6,000 companies were taken into consideration when coming up with the 50 companies that made the list.

Additionally, the public companies were then ranked according to their one-year revenue growth rates, while privately held companies required further digging to estimate their potential growth.

"This enabled us to identify qualifying companies that are still 'pre-revenue' – giving us early access to new ventures," Corporate Knights penned in its Future 50 announcement. "From this, we pulled out the top 25 private and 25 public companies that earn the majority of their revenue from clean energy themes to form our Future 50."

Founded in 2016 by mining consultants Tim Johnston and Ajay Kochhar, Li-Cycle has raised more than US$700 million (with US$200 million from Glencore) to perfect its technology and build a hub-and-spoke network of recycling centers in Canada, the United States and Europe.

You can read about Glencore and Li-Cycle's global feedstock supply agreement at Glencore invests $200M into Li-Cycle in the May 5, 2022, edition of Metal Tech News.

From Corporate Knights' calculations, Li-Cycle had 831% revenue growth in a single year, marking it as the third-highest fastest-growing company in Canada and setting its place as a future sustainable powerhouse for western supply of recycled battery metals.

You can read about Li-Cycle and other recycling efforts for the North American EV supply chain at Recycling to complete a circular economy in the Metal Tech News Critical Minerals Alliances magazine, published on September 9, 2021.