By Andrea Hargraves 
EIT InnoEnergy and Demeter Investment Managers, a European venture capital firm, today announced the launch of a fund dedicated to developing the battery raw materials supply chain in Europe, with a budget of €500 million.
The EBA Strategic Battery Materials Fund was launched at a time of increasing European demand for batteries, with significant gaps emerging in the early stages (extraction and transformation) of the EU battery materials supply chain.
Therefore, in order to reduce over-reliance on foreign supplies, the Fund aims to increase national capacities for strategic battery materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite.
It is essential to support early-stage projects, committed to a sustainable, traceable and transparent battery raw material supply chain, said Diego Pavia, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy. “And that is exactly what the EBA Materials Fund will provide.”
Demeter will serve as the fund's manager and partner. AEIT InnoEnergy will contribute its industry and early-stage investment expertise to identify and support investment projects, and Societe Generale will act as exclusive financial advisor in the capital raising.
The battery industry is of strategic importance and fundamental to global competitiveness. Therefore, continuous improvement is necessary, as securing battery raw materials is the biggest task ahead. “Today’s groundbreaking announcement shows that this is serious – both in terms of increasing our domestic capabilities and promoting diversification through trade and cooperation with trusted partners,” says European Commission Executive Vice-President Maros Šefčović, who is in charge of the European Green Deal. European Battery Alliance.
The EBA Materials Fund will support projects to the highest environmental standards, and will receive one of the highest environmental, social and governance ratings.