Princeton Critical Minerals, a spinout from Princeton University, announced it has secured $16 million in combined equity and non-dilutive funding to support the scaling of its brine-based lithium production platform. The financing round includes an $11 million Series A led by SOSV, alongside investments from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Prospect Innovation, ASTOR Management AG, Black Forest Ventures, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. The company has also received more than $5 million in grant funding from the National Science Foundation, ARPA-E, and NJEDA.
PCM’s technology platform focuses on improving efficiency and scalability of lithium extraction from brine resources, which contain over half of the world’s lithium reserves. The company’s systems employ evaporation enhancement, artificial intelligence-enabled monitoring, and selective crystallization techniques designed to increase production throughput while reducing energy consumption, chemical use, and operational complexity. According to co-founder and CEO Sean Zheng, lithium demand has expanded significantly beyond electric vehicle batteries to include battery storage, AI data centers, robotics, and broader electrification initiatives.
The company has recently transitioned its Lilypad technology from pilot testing to commercial deployment in Chile, integrating directly into existing evaporation ponds that process naturally occurring mineral-rich underground water. PCM is concurrently preparing for U.S.-based commercial deployments, leveraging government support for domestic critical mineral infrastructure. The startup is also field-testing two additional technologies in Chile focused on evaporation enhancement and AI-powered process optimization.
The capital will be allocated toward scaling manufacturing, expanding commercial deployments, establishing U.S.-based production capabilities, and advancing the core technology platform. PCM indicated that customer demand from major lithium producers is growing, and the funding is intended to support broader sales and deployment efforts across multiple geographies.
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