Former Northvolt executives have launched a new startup with backing from one of Sweden's most prominent investors.
The startup, dubbed Refinyx, emerged from stealth today with news that it has acquired battery recycling patents and a pilot plant from Lyten, the US company which acquired Northvolt's bankrupt assets earlier this year.
Under the deal, the Stockholm-based startup acquired a portfolio of 134 patents and a pilot facility in Västerås, Sweden, the company announced on Friday. The terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition was made with backing from Conni Jonsson, founder of Swedish private equity firm EQT through his firm Qarlbo Energy, which he co-owns with his family.
Refinyx was set up in March 2025, the same month Northvolt filed for bankruptcy, according to Swedish company registry records. Its website lists its address as Norrsken House, the Stockholm hub for impact startups.
Refinyx will test its processes at the 1,200-square-metre Loophouse pilot plant in Västerås. It is already running a €435,000 (SEK 4.9m) pilot project there with Alfa Laval, according to Swedish innovation agency Vinnova.
A team of Northvolt veterans
Its four co-founders came from the senior team at Northvolt Revolt, the battery maker's recycling division. Mahmood Alemrajabi chairs the board, alongside Ragnar Sjödahl, Dhruv Malhotra and Ramiar Sadegh-Vaziri, according to company filings.
Sjödahl was Northvolt's director of recycling operations, according to the Swedish Energy Agency. He and Alemrajabi are named as co-inventors on several Northvolt recycling patents, according to US patent records.
Alemrajabi and Sadegh-Vaziri both studied chemical engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Unlike Northvolt, Refinyx will not build or run its own plants. It will license its technology to industrial operators that do, according to the statement.
"The lesson was not that these plants cannot be built in the West," Refinyx says on its website. "It is that one company should not carry the technology and the balance sheet alone."
Michel Thomas, CEO of Qarlbo Energy, said demand for the technology was rising.
"There is a rapidly growing need for technology that can recover critical raw materials efficiently, competitively, and sustainably," Thomas said in a press statement.
"Refinyx has processes proven at industrial scale, and we are seeing strong interest from industrial companies in building and operating these types of facilities."
Giving batteries a second life
The technology recovers nickel, cobalt and lithium, and is being extended to rare earths and phosphorus. It was developed over eight years at Revolt, including at the Revolt Ett plant in Skellefteå, which US battery company Lyten agreed to buy in March.
Refinyx will test its processes at its 1,200-square-metre Loophouse pilot plant in Västerås. It is running a €435,000 (SEK 4.9m) pilot project there with Alfa Laval, according to Swedish innovation agency Vinnova.
Refinyx has signed its first major customer in the US, according to the statement, but did not name it. Since 27 August, US rules have required black mass, the metal-rich powder from shredded batteries, to be sold to US buyers.
In Europe, the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act sets a target for recycling to supply 25 percent of the bloc's demand for strategic raw materials by 2030.
Qarlbo Energy, the majority owner of hydrogen refuelling network Hydri, will take an active, long-term ownership role in Refinyx, according to the statement.