University of Texas spinout Supra Elemental Recovery is looking for feed material to start pilot testing its “non-toxic” metal recovery system after raising US$2 million via a pre-seed funding round led by New York venture capital firm Crucible Capital.
Austin-based start-up Supra says it is targeting mine and consumer electronic waste streams with technology developed by UT chemists and engineers. It wants to add gallium, scandium and other metals to US domestic semiconductor supply chains, saying the funding would support “continued technology development and preparation for commercial pilots, expected in 2026”.
“The US is currently 100% import-dependent for both gallium and scandium,” Supra said this week.
“China dominates the critical minerals market through capital-intensive and environmentally hazardous refining processes. Supra has developed a non-toxic approach in which dissolved industrial waste is pumped through proprietary, reusable sponge-like cartridges that selectively capture and release critical minerals in sequence.
“Early results indicate up to 100-times greater selectivity and speed compared to incumbent methods, enabling higher purity and lower costs.”
Supra says its technology is also being validated for cobalt, lithium and lanthanides used in batteries and magnets.
CEO and co-founder Katie Ullmann Durham said the company was targeting billions of dollars worth of metals in domestic mine and consumer waste streams. Chief operating officer and co-founder Jordan Sessler said advances in supramolecular chemistry, materials science and fluid dynamics were being applied by Supra to try to recover critical minerals economically at scale.
“The key to restoring America’s rare earth leadership is building refining capacity, the bottleneck standing between domestic raw resources and secure supply,” Crucible Capital founder and general partner, Meltem Demirors, said.
“Supra is building this exact capability with a proprietary new approach. We’re proud to back a team that is positioned to reshape how critical materials are produced in the United States.”
UT Seed Fund, Climate Capital, Portmanteau Ventures and Pew Protection Trust were other investors in what Supra described as an oversubscribed pre-seed round.
