Aiming at the international battery recycling market, national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" company "Bocui Recycling" has secured an additional tens of millions of yuan in Series B financing | Exclusive report from 36Kr
Text | Zhang Bingbing
Editor | A Zhi
36Kr learned that Suzhou Bocui Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Bocui Recycling") recently announced an additional investment of tens of millions of yuan in its Series B financing. The new investor in the Series B round is Taiping Innovation Fund. Previously, Bocui Recycling had completed the delivery of the leading investor in the nearly 100 million yuan Series B round. As of now, the Series B financing has cumulatively exceeded 100 million yuan. The funds will be used for product R & D and overseas project cooperation.
"Bocui Recycling" was founded in May 2019. It provides a full - set solution for the recycling of key battery materials from the aspects of pre - treatment, metal extraction, separation and purification, and material regeneration. The founder, Lin Xiao, was once a research member of the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research directions include the separation of key metals and the green manufacturing of battery materials, and he has won the National Technological Invention Award.
Currently, "Bocui Recycling" has carried out business in more than a dozen countries in the Asia - Pacific, Europe, North America, the Middle East, etc. It provides industrial consulting, technical services, distributed intelligent equipment, and the design, development, supply, and operation of large - scale engineering projects for more than a dozen Fortune Global 500 companies in the energy field and leading domestic and foreign battery and energy companies, and has executed more than 60 projects.
I. The overseas expansion of battery recycling enterprises is essentially the export of services
According to a relevant report by McKinsey, by 2030, the global passenger car market is expected to exceed 80 million units, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will reach about 50%. The lifespan of power batteries for new energy vehicles is usually 5 - 8 years. With the continuous expansion of the demand for power batteries, battery recycling will become an urgent global issue.
In Lin Xiao's view, China is the largest and most concentrated market for battery recycling and the best engineering technology demonstration market in the world. However, the successful recycling business model in China cannot be directly replicated overseas. "Most of the retired batteries in China are circulated through trading and price increases at each level. By the time they reach the final recycling plant, the price of retired batteries is already very high. Therefore, in the Chinese market, the recovery rate naturally becomes the most important technical indicator. But overseas, the battery processing capacity is insufficient, environmental protection requirements are high, and energy and labor costs are high. In Europe, the most cost - sensitive items are electricity or labor and other cost items. So the technical advancement indicators are completely different from those in China."
The EU's "New Battery Regulation" that came into effect in August 2023 stipulates that producers are responsible for the recycling of waste batteries, including establishing a recycling network and paying for processing fees. By the end of 2031, the recovery rate of key metals such as cobalt and nickel needs to reach 95%, and the lithium recovery rate needs to reach 80%. Currently, leading domestic battery recycling enterprises have generally achieved a recovery rate of more than 95% for nickel and cobalt metals and a comprehensive lithium recovery rate of more than 90%.
Lin Xiao summarized that, different from the product exports of industries such as new energy vehicles and batteries, the overseas expansion of battery recycling enterprises is essentially the export of services to ensure the product exports of the "new three categories".
Bocui Recycling's LFP multi - component recycling line
"From the very beginning, we didn't think of ourselves as just a solution provider for recycling. We have always positioned ourselves as an operation and maintenance service provider for energy infrastructure." Lin Xiao introduced that whether it is power batteries in the transportation field or energy storage batteries in the energy field, they will all become social public infrastructure and assets in the future. Under the trend of new energy development, energy infrastructure will gradually move towards asset standardization and social publicization. Therefore, someone needs to carry out unified professional operation and maintenance and replace the old with the new.
Therefore, "Bocui Recycling" does not directly obtain waste battery raw materials from social channels as a recycling plant. Instead, it focuses on large - scale B - end customers such as leading recycling plants, battery factories, automobile manufacturers, and energy companies, providing them with technology, equipment, and subsequent operation and maintenance services.
II. From technology output to joint - venture implementation to explore the international market
To enter the international market, technical support is the primary foundation. Lin Xiao pointed out that according to different battery materials, "Bocui Recycling" has laid out two technical routes: for batteries such as ternary batteries that can be gradually iterated, starting from the material level, using the same metal materials such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium to produce new batteries with higher performance and energy density, such as high - nickel ternary batteries or even semi - solid/solid - state batteries, to upgrade the quality and quantity of batteries. For lithium iron phosphate batteries whose material performance is close to the theoretical limit, a direct material - to - material repair route is adopted. "This kind of technology relies on raw materials with standard consistency and requires the establishment of a stable recycling system for scrapped batteries upstream and downstream." Lin Xiao added.
In the core material section, "Bocui Recycling" has established an independent R & D extraction system. The new co - extraction system of Bocui can extract nickel, cobalt, and manganese simultaneously and directly produce battery - grade materials. According to calculations, compared with traditional processes, it can reduce the investment in extraction equipment by more than 30% and the extraction energy consumption by more than 10%. Before the technology is implemented, "Bocui Recycling" will also conduct laboratory tests and on - site pilot tests according to customer needs to verify the extraction effect of the extractant and ensure its stability in long - term use.
Bocui Recycling's full - process pre - treatment production line
Lin Xiao introduced that "Bocui Recycling" mainly conducts business globally in the form of project - based technology and services: "To provide recycling services locally, it is necessary to build a factory locally, so this is very challenging."
Taking the Spanish joint - venture project of "Bocui Recycling" as an example, In January 2025, "Bocui Recycling" announced the establishment of a joint - venture company with ILUNION and EFT - System to build a recycling plant in Spain with an annual processing capacity of 6,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate batteries to support the local recycling and closed - loop of lithium iron phosphate batteries in Europe. The factory will be managed as a Special Employment Center (SEC) to ensure that more than 70% of the employees are disabled. Before that, "Bocui Recycling" had cooperated with ILUNION for two years, providing it with technical support services, which became the basis for the joint - venture factory.
"During the project implementation process, we need to build a production line for customers in China so that they can see the actual products in China. We also need to obtain the EU's CE certification in Europe and train future workshop directors in Europe. Finally, we transport the equipment to Europe and complete the installation and commissioning." Lin Xiao admitted that this model is basically similar to the cooperation model of foreign automakers in China back then. In this process, the revenue model of "Bocui Recycling" has expanded from technical service fees to equipment sales fees and operation sharing, etc.
Bocui Recycling's skid - mounted equipment for the Polish project
In summary, the overseas business model of "Bocui Recycling" is divided into three major parts: The first is technical services, covering the targeted development of recycling technologies that meet local laws and regulations in the front - end, engineering design, and project implementation; The second is the sales of production line hardware, including complete production lines and spare parts; The third is operation and maintenance services. In the early stage, it cooperates with local customers in various countries to build factories together and gradually evolves the operation and maintenance model. At the same time, it is necessary to balance project revenue and R & D investment in each R & D pipeline and overseas project to ensure overall profitability and cope with the frequently changing international situation.
The introduction of Taiping Innovation Fund in this financing of "Bocui Recycling" aims to cooperate with insurance funds in the new energy vehicle insurance business and to safeguard the overseas business of Chinese new energy enterprises. The core goal of "Bocui Recycling" in the future is to develop localized solutions according to the different regional specific requirements around the world, then integrate the advantages of the localized solutions from around the world for a second - round integration, continuously iterate and upgrade, and serve the domestic and foreign battery recycling industries.
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This article is from the WeChat public account "36Kr Future Industries". Author: Zhang Bingbing, A Zhi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.