Princeton Critical Minerals secured $16 million through an $11 million Series A led by SOSV HAX plus $5 million in grants to scale U.S. manufacturing and South American deployments of its Lilypad, SmartPond, and E-LiTE lithium extraction technologies.
Princeton Critical Minerals (PCM), a Newark, New Jersey-based clean tech company and Princeton University spin-out (originally PureLi), raised $16 million in combined Series A equity and non dilutive grant funding. The package consists of an $11 million Series A equity round led by SOSV HAX, with participation from The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Prospect Innovation, Astor Management AG, BlackForest Ventures (also referred to as Black Forest Ventures), and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Evergreen Fund, plus a $5 million package of state and federal grants.
PitchBook data aligns on the $11 million early stage VC tranche (dated around late July 2026) and lists investors including NJEDA, Yaax Capital, BlackForest Ventures, HAX, and SOSV, with the company showing roughly 28 employees and a generating revenue stage.
What is Princeton Critical Minerals?
Founded in 2023 as a university spin-out from Princeton’s WET Lab / Andlinger Center ecosystem (with roots in interfacial solar evaporation research), PCM is led by co-founder and CEO Sean Zheng (former Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow) and co-founder/CSO Z. Jason Ren (Princeton professor of civil and environmental engineering). Additional team members include co-founder and senior advisor Richard Blue.
The company’s platform targets the constraints of traditional brine evaporation ponds, which supply roughly 40% of global lithium (and most natural nitrate) but require 12–18 months and large land footprints under natural solar evaporation. PCM’s integrated suite includes:
- Lilypad™: Floating, solar powered devices with proprietary anti fouling coatings that act as a “second sun,” converting >96% of incoming sunlight into thermal energy at the surface (vs. <50% efficiency in open ponds). Field pilots with Chilean lithium producer SQM in northern Chile showed evaporation rate boosts of 40–122% depending on brine chemistry, enabling higher yields from existing ponds without footprint expansion.
- SmartPond™: AI driven real time sensing, tracking, and forecasting for digital optimization of ponds (reduced losses, higher recovery, intelligent operations).
- E-LiTE™ (or E-LITE): Modular selective crystallization/fiber-based system for high recovery extraction from low concentration brines or wastewater (claims include 90%+ recovery, 80% water reclamation, viability down to ~50 ppm Li feed), unlocking domestic or previously uneconomic sources such as industrial or oil/gas related streams.
The approach emphasizes higher recovery, faster production, lower land/water/energy/chemical intensity, and better project economics for both conventional ponds and next generation/direct lithium extraction (DLE) systems. PCM has moved from lab prototypes to commercial ready products deployed at South American production sites and reports revenue generation from product sales, with pilots validating technical and economic feasibility. Related academic work has appeared in Nature Water.
Proceeds will support ramping domestic (U.S.) manufacturing infrastructure and automated assembly operations, scaling commercial field deployments across South American salt flats, and expanding materials science and engineering teams.
This aligns with prior non dilutive support, including an NSF SBIR Fast-Track award (≈$1.555 million, Cooperative Agreement 2451235, started August 2025, focused on selective evaporative lithium transport/extraction from saline water, with phases targeting core technology finalization, multi brine compatibility, and a 25 gallons per day system). NJEDA Evergreen Fund involvement (via SOSV as qualified venture firm) previously contemplated matching investments in the company.
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Lithium demand is projected to rise sharply with electrification and energy storage growth, while the U.S. remains heavily import dependent. Traditional pond expansion faces land, time, water, and environmental limits; hard rock and many DLE routes can be energy or chemical intensive. PCM’s modular, retrofit friendly enhancements target near term capacity gains on existing assets (particularly South American brine operations) while enabling domestic low grade resources, supporting supply chain resilience, reduced environmental footprint, and national security priorities around critical minerals.
Investor composition, hard tech accelerator (SOSV/HAX), climate focused foundation (Grantham), family office/VC participants, and state economic development capital, signals validation of both the technology’s commercial traction and its alignment with U.S./New Jersey innovation, manufacturing, and clean tech priorities. The mix of equity and grants reduces dilution while funding capital intensive manufacturing scale-up.
Prior milestones include HAX acceleration in Newark, rapid progression from prototypes to field deployments (under two years to commercial products at operational sites), SQM partnership pilots, and early revenue. The company positions its platform for both immediate pond optimization and longer term low grade resource unlocking.
The $16 million round provides capital to transition from proven pilots and initial commercial traction toward broader manufacturing scale, geographic deployment expansion, and workforce growth at a moment of heightened focus on secure, efficient critical minerals supply.
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