Newark, N.J.-based Princeton Critical Minerals(PCM) has raised $16 million in combined equity and non-dilutive funding as the company moves from pilot projects toward commercial deployment of technology designed to increase lithium production from brine. The financing includes a $11 million Series A led by local venture firm SOSV and more than $5 million in grants. The company plans to use the capital to expand manufacturing, deploy its systems in commercial operations and establish U.S. production capabilities.
The round saw participation from the Boston-based 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 recently secured more than $5 million in grant funding from the National Science Foundation, ARPA-E, and NJEDA.
PCM’s platform combines enhanced evaporation, AI-based pond monitoring and selective crystallization. Its approach is intended to increase the amount of lithium recovered from brine while reducing energy and chemical requirements, and shortening processing cycles, while integrating into existing production infrastructures.
“Lithium demand has moved far beyond the demand for electric vehicle batteries,” said Sean Zheng, co-founder and CEO of PCM. “Battery storage, AI data centers, robotics, drones, and broader electrification are all converging on the same constrained critical mineral supply chain, lithium first and foremost,” Zheng added.
Zheng is an environmental engineer and entrepreneur who earned his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where his research focused on environmental nanotechnology, membrane-based processes and carbon capture. He later joined Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment as a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow, working with Professor Z. Jason Ren on methods to accelerate mineral extraction from brine and other saline water sources.
Zheng and Ren co-founded Princeton Critical Minerals in 2023, taking the research from the laboratory into commercial applications for lithium production. Under Zheng’s leadership, the company has developed products including Lilypad, a solar-evaporation enhancement system designed for deployment at lithium production sites, and has moved the technology into field applications with major industry customers.
The company is also field-testing two additional technologies in the country: one designed to improve evaporation performance and another focused on process optimization using AI. PCM’s strategy is focused on improving the throughput and economics of established workflows instead of replacing existing infrastructure outright.
SOSV is a deep-technology venture capital firm that invests primarily at the pre-seed stage, backing companies developing technologies in areas including human and planetary health. Through its HAX program in Newark, N.J., the firm provides hardware and hard-tech startups with access to product-development, manufacturing and fundraising resources. The firm makes roughly 60 pre-seed investments each year of up to $550,000, alongside about 150 follow-on investments in deep-tech companies.
