Redwood Materials reportedly cuts 5% of staff after $350M raise

Posted: Fresh off a $350 millionraise, battery recycler and cathode-maker Redwood Materials is reportedly cutting around 5% of its workforce, according toBloomberg News. Nevada-based Redwood employees around 1,200 employees, so the cuts affect a few dozen workers. The company, founded in 2017 by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, initially focused on recycling scrap from battery cell production, consumer electronics, and used EV batteries. The company extracts materials like cobalt, nickel, and lithium from those discarded goods and then sells them back to its customers, which include Panasonic. Redwood has since added cathode production. It recently launched a new business that uses those old EV batteries in energy storage products — a sector that has taken off during the boom of power-hungry AI data centers. As of June, the company had stockpiled more than 1 gigawatt-hour’s worth of batteries for this purpose. The $350 million Series E, announced in October, boosted the company’s valuation to around $6 billion, as TechCrunchpreviously reported. A spokesperson declined to comment on the layoffs. Topics StrictlyVC concludes its 2025 series with an exclusive event featuring insights from leading VCs and builders such as Pat Gelsinger, Mina Fahmi, and more. Plus, opportunities to forge meaningful connections. Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage. TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. Provides movers and shakers with the info they need to start their day. By submitting your email, you agree to ourTermsandPrivacy Notice.