Redwood Materials

Quick read

Redwood Materials, battery recycling and critical materials company, founded April 2017, headquartered in Carson City, Nevada. Founded by JB Straubel (former Tesla CTO), it recovers lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper from end-of-life batteries and manufactures cathode active material domestically. It has since expanded into grid-scale energy storage under the Redwood Energy brand, redeploying second-life EV batteries to power data centers and strengthen the U.S. grid.

Key facts

Founded

April 2017

Founders

JB Straubel

Employees

1000+

Sectors

climate, hardware

Website

redwoodmaterials.com

Mission

Redwood Materials builds a domestic circular supply chain for critical battery materials — recovering lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper from end-of-life batteries, manufacturing cathode active material and copper foil in the U.S., and deploying second-life battery packs as grid-scale energy storage to power data centers and the national grid.

Recent activity

• Jun 2026investment
  General Motors became the first automaker to partner with Redwood across the full battery lifecycle. Redwood will deploy 1.5 MW / 7.2 MWh of energy storage at a GM manufacturing facility in Michigan, built from roughly 100 repurposed GM battery packs. redwoodmaterials.com
• May 2026leadership
  Redwood appointed Deepak Ahuja as CFO, filling a role vacant for roughly 18 months. Ahuja said an IPO is 'too early' to discuss, citing the company's ability to raise from blue-chip investors. The company recently lost its COO Chris Lister to retirement and at least three VPs, including VP of Integrated Supply Chain Bradley Mayhew and VP of Mechanical Engineering Guillermo Urquiza. techcrunch.com
• Apr 2026leadership
  COO Chris Lister retired, following the April 21 layoff announcement. VP of Integrated Supply Chain Bradley Mayhew also departed that month; VP of Mechanical Engineering Guillermo Urquiza left in March. techcrunch.com
• Apr 2026press
  Redwood cut roughly 135 employees — about 10% of its workforce — as part of a restructuring to focus on its energy storage business. The cuts came five months after a prior 5% reduction in force. CEO JB Straubel told remaining staff the materials business is 'well on its way to profitability.' techcrunch.com
• Apr 2026product
  Rivian and Redwood announced a partnership to deploy second-life EV battery packs as energy storage at Rivian's manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. rivian.com
• Mar 2026product
  Redwood's energy storage systems met and exceeded a new industry safety benchmark, and the company expanded its Crusoe AI partnership to 7x compute scale after recording 99.2% microgrid uptime. redwoodmaterials.com
• Jan 2026fundraise
  Redwood closed the final tranche of its Series E at $425 million total, with Google joining as a new investor. The round brought total capital raised to more than $2 billion and the valuation to over $6 billion. energy-storage.news
• Feb 2026product
  Redwood quadrupled its San Francisco R&D footprint to support growth of its Redwood Energy division. redwoodmaterials.com
• May 2026leadership
  Redwood Materials named Navin Ahuja as its new CFO — the first in roughly 18 months after the previous CFO departed. Ahuja said an IPO is too early to discuss, pointing to the company's track record of raising capital from blue-chip investors. The appointment follows the departure of the COO (retired) and at least three VPs. techcrunch.com
• Apr 2026product
  Rivian and Redwood Materials announced an energy storage partnership for manufacturing. The Wall Street Journal reported that Rivian's Illinois factory will run on recycled EV batteries supplied by Redwood. redwoodmaterials.com
• Mar 2026product
  Redwood and Crusoe expanded their compute partnership to 7x scale following 99.2% microgrid uptime on their joint Nevada project. Redwood's energy storage systems also met and exceeded a new safety benchmark announced the same month. redwoodmaterials.com
• Mar 2026press
  Fast Company named Redwood Materials one of the most innovative energy companies in 2026. redwoodmaterials.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• JB Straubel · Founder & CEO
  Brief →
• Deepak Ahuja · CFO (incoming, May 2026)
• Kevin Kassekert · COO
• Cal Lankton · Chief Commercial Officer

Sources

• 'Too early' to talk IPO, Redwood Materials' incoming CFO says | TechCrunch
• Former Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja joins Redwood Materials | CNBC
• Redwood Materials valuation, funding & news | Sacra
• Redwood Materials 2026 Funding Rounds & Investors | Tracxn
• Redwood Materials | LinkedIn
• Redwood Materials - Wikipedia
• Redwood Materials $350M Series E announcement | X
• Redwood Materials San Francisco R&D Center | X
• https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/about/
• https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1986441163004403886
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-mcconnell-800b7428
• https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/news/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-mcconnell-800b7428/
• https://tracxn.com/d/companies/redwood-materials/__o1PdBwSo2nSSxGCl523YtWr8iwRVDKkVeIJ-ZwUSPO0
• https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/23/redwood-materials-loses-coo-amid-layoffs-restructuring/
• https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/21/redwood-materials-lays-off-10-in-restructuring-to-chase-energy-storage-business/
• https://rivian.com/newsroom/article/rivian-and-redwood-materials-announce-energy-storage-partnership-for-manufacturing
• https://www.energy-storage.news/us-battery-recycling-in-doldrums-updates-from-redwood-materials-ascend-elements/

Other companies in United States

• OpenAI · AI lab, San Francisco·
• Anthropic · AI safety lab, San Francisco·
• Stripe · Payments infrastructure, San Francisco·
• Microsoft · Big tech, Redmond·
• NVIDIA · AI hardware, Santa Clara·
• Databricks · Data + AI platform, San Francisco

Frequently asked