Sortera Alloys Announces $10M Funding Round to Advance End-of-Life Recycling for Automotive Metals

Company Produces High-Purity Recycled Alloys that Reduce CO₂ Emissions and Help Customers Achieve Circular Production Goals

FORT WAYNE, Ind., July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sortera Alloys, Inc., an innovative industrial scrap metal sorting and recycling company powered by A.I. imagery, data analytics, and advanced sensors, announced $10M in funding led by Assembly Ventures with additional funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Novelis. Sortera is dedicated to providing a solution for end-of-life circular recycling in the aluminum industry. 

Sortera's A.I.-powered technology allows existing streams of mixed alloy aluminum scrap to be separated back into individual alloys. The upgraded metals can then be recycled back into the highest value applications ranging from automotive cast and flat-rolled products to building, construction, and aerospace materials extrusions. The company's low-cost, scalable production process enables customers to reduce their CO₂ footprint and achieve sustainability and circular production goals due to the fact that recycled aluminum requires roughly 95% less energy to produce than aluminum produced from virgin raw materials.

"We are thrilled to have this important investment from Assembly, together with additional funds from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Novelis," said Michael Siemer, CEO, Sortera Alloys. "The funding will be used to help scale our operations, grow the team and provide high-quality metal recycling from automobiles." 

"Sortera Alloys is a technology driven start-up that could only be created in the industrial heartland," said Chris Thomas, co-founder and partner at Assembly Ventures.  "For decades automotive and manufacturing companies the world over have been working to implement truly circular supply chains.  Sortera is poised to power efficiencies in industrial and manufacturing supply chains, and create true circularity of manufacturing inputs, across the Western world."

The funding round follows a significant partnership with Novelis that will see Sortera deliver high-quality, recycled alloy derived from automotive scrap to Novelis, who will remanufacture the material into high recycled content aluminum sheet for the automotive industry. 

"The partnership with Sortera will allow Novelis to further increase the recycled content in our products, in particular, our automotive materials," said Derek Prichett, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Novelis. "This will enable us to meet our own ambitious goals of reducing our carbon footprint, as well as help our customers achieve their own sustainability goals."

Sortera operates from a 10-acre production facility in Fort Wayne, IN, with plans to expand through the end of 2022.  The company's proprietary process recovers and repurposes materials once destined for landfills or to be recycled as low-quality composite products. The resulting high-quality recycled feedstock is cycled back into the $10B+ U.S. aluminum alloy feedstock market.

About Sortera Alloys, Inc.  

Sortera Alloys brings state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning data analytics to the industrial scrap metal recycling industry. This disruptive technology drives new paradigms by generating new recycling products through advanced sortation methods. Creating novel recycled metal fractions from existing scrap recycling streams enables the domestic production of metals for manufacturing, boosting the strength of the circular economy. Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sortera is led by a team of seasoned innovators in the fields of advanced materials, electronic instrumentation and equipment development. For more information visit: www.sorteraalloys.com.

Forward Looking Statement 

Statements made in this news release that describe Novelis' intentions, expectations or predictions may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of securities laws. Examples of forward-looking statements in this news release include Novelis' further increase of recycled content and expectations to meet carbon footprint reduction targets. Novelis cautions that, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty. We do not intend, and we disclaim any obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Important risk factors which could impact outcomes are included under the caption "Risk Factors" in the company's Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.

SOURCE Sortera Alloys, Inc.