Redwood Materials has been expanding in recent years – Growth has expanded the footprint of lithium-ion battery recycling and materials startups far beyond Carson City, Nevada headquarters as it locks in deals ToyotaPanasonic and GM, started at South Carolina Factoryand Make a purchase In Europe.
However, COLIN CAMPBELL, a mahogany material, saw the company’s 1,100-person workforce gap. Campbell told San Francisco that San Francisco is a longtime Tesla veteran TechCrunch who took over top technology in August 2023.
The company was founded previously Tesla CTO JB Straubela new R&D center in San Francisco is filling this gap. Located in the 15,000-square-foot facility in the Urban Design District features laboratory space to support engineers who will eventually work at every point in the battery ecosystem, from chemical engineering and cathode science to software and electrical engineering. This work could help improve cathode production, an important part of the Redwood business, which generated $200 million in revenue in 2024.
Redwood moved into the center about a week ago with only a few engineers on site. But Campbell hopes to eventually hire about 50 or more people.
“Our year was very good and we had a lot of revenue,” Campbell said, adding that the company was limited by expanding its capabilities. “What limits our ability to expand our engineering teams is recruiting. We just need to expand the aperture of places we can hire. And San Francisco can get into a logical place for many different reasons.”
He added that the high point on the list is the in-depth talent pool of hardware and software engineers in the Bay Area.
Lithium-ion batteries contain three key components. There are two electrodes, one anode (negative) on one side and one cathode (positive) on the other. Typically, electrolytes sit in the middle, acting as a courier for moving ions between electrodes when charging and discharging. The foil of the cathode accounts for more than half of the battery cost and contains lithium, nickel and cobalt. Redwood is able to capture all of this material through battery recycling and processing.
However, the goal of mahogany is not recycling. The startup, which has raised over $2 billion in private funding, is building an end-to-end battery ecosystem that hits the full life cycle of lithium-ion batteries at each stage, including recycling, improvement, remanufacturing, and evaluating battery health and prolonging life.
Campbell is particularly keen on the development of equipment for engineers for the mahogany factory.
“The main part that it’s hard for the United States to build in the United States is that the United States does not have an industrial foundation to make a bunch of such machinery, especially those that are novel and cost-effective,” he said. “So novel process equipment engineering is a big part of it.”
The lab engineers will also use battery diagnostics to help understand the health of the battery pack, which Campbell believes could benefit another business.
“I think starting from the foundation of the business, that is, battery materials, we put all the other projects on top of them,” Campbell said. Adding diagnostic tools can improve the bottom line. “So if we receive the packaging, and we diagnose it, and it is actually bad, it’s a big advantage for us to recycle it directly – I think that might be important.”
Campbell added that he believes the diagnosis is not a majority stake for Redwood, but it fits the overall spirit of the company.
“We retired this constitutional disgust before we need to retire, so even if it’s not a major part of the business, that’s right for this ecosystem,” he said. “And we’ll do it.” ”
