How mining giant Rio Tinto and Founders Factory selected their 2024 cohort
Discover the startups in Rio Tinto and Founders Factory cohort and how they're being supported.
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Mining giant Rio Tinto is making waves once again. Following its $6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium, cementing its position as a top-three global lithium producer, Rio Tinto is now taking bold steps toward revolutionising the mining industry. The company has launched its first-ever climate and deep tech accelerator aimed at transforming and decarbonising mining operations. Partnering with Founders Factory, Rio Tinto plans to invest $14.4 million over the next three years in early-stage startups focused on pioneering technologies for safer, greener, and more efficient mining.
“For over two decades, my work with technology startups has spanned various industries,” says Henry Lane Fox, Founders Factory CEO and Co-founder, “but climate change has always been a personal and professional passion. Through Founders Factory, we've partnered with leading corporations like EasyJet and L’Oréal, both committed to achieving net-zero emissions. Early on, we recognised that climate change is not just an environmental issue—it's a business challenge. We started investing in climate-focused innovations in 2016, and since then, the momentum has only grown.”
Henry says the accelerator’s focus has shifted recently to heavy industry, “which we see as the ‘Holy Grail’ of decarbonisation.” These are sectors where reducing emissions is exceptionally difficult, but the potential impact is enormous. The partnership with mining giant Rio Tinto aims to decarbonise one of the most challenging industries.
There are huge obstacles in the way of disrupting the mining sector, to achieve net-zero by 2050, emissions from mining must be reduced by 90% while production of metal like copper and nickel will have to increase by 200-300% to support the energy transition.
There’s no clear-cut blueprint for tackling the massive energy consumption, especially when many sites are located in remote, extreme environments. Electrifying the heavy-duty vehicles used in mining also presents obstacles, as they require more power than current technologies can deliver. The extraction process itself demands vast amounts of energy, with no sustainable alternatives in place—yet.
With Rio Tinto’s ambitious target of reaching net-zero by 2050 and global reach and impact, it has the chance to play a significant role in cutting global emissions, of which mining is estimated to cause as much 5-7%. By backing cutting-edge startups, Rio Tinto and Founders Factory are poised to drive real change in one of the world’s most challenging sectors. In this Green Techpreneur edition, Henry Lane Fox discusses the future of mining—and with the potential of AI being explored to create synthetic metals, its one that could look vastly different.
What’s the selection process for the mining accelerator?
We’re looking for startups globally, focusing on early-stage companies at the pre-seed or seed stage. These are often startups with scientific breakthroughs, but they haven’t yet tested their solutions in the field. We look for a combination of innovative science and scrappy, commercially-minded founders. Our scope is broad, covering areas from precision mining technologies and metal extraction to logistics and supply chains.
We welcome startups from all over the world. In our first cohort, we had companies from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. We believe entrepreneurship and science know no borders.
What startups have you invested in so far?
The first cohort is made up of six early-stage startups that have been selected for their technologies related to copper, lithium and critical minerals.
These are:
● Endolith—increases copper recovery from low-grade ores in heap leaches by harnessing microbial communities, synthetic biology techniques, and a cloud-native platform (Denver, US)
● ProSpectral—next-generation computer vision for material detection and analysis (Cambridge, UK)
● BluumBio—enzyme database for removing pollutants from soil, air, and water (Berkeley, US)
● Sunchem— developing sustainable leaching and Nano Filter technologies for the precision separation of critical metals. (Berkeley, US)
● Vycarb—developing, deploying, and marketing tools that enable billion-tonne fully-measured carbon dioxide removal and storage (Brooklyn, US)
● Magmatic—building a library of metal-binding proteins, focusing initially on lithium recovery (Vienna, Austria)
What support do you offer these startups?
Our main focus is helping startups find product-market fit quickly. Many of these companies have proven their concepts in the lab, but need to validate them in real-world settings. We work closely with Rio Tinto to conduct field trials and help startups understand the business model and commercialization pathway. This allows them to get to market faster.
How does Rio Tinto contribute to this partnership?
Rio Tinto provides invaluable support at a senior level. They have advanced R&D facilities that help startups accelerate their development by sharing insights from previous projects. Rio can also act as a first customer, offering startups the opportunity to scale their solutions rapidly if proven viable.
Are there specific technologies that stand out to you?
AI is being used to explore synthetic routes for creating metals, potentially reducing the need for mining altogether.
In our portfolio, Endolith is using biology to recover metals from mining waste, while another company, Sunchem, is using chemistry to extract metals from wastewater. Precision drilling is also improving, allowing for smaller environmental footprints and reduced emissions.
What decarbonization trends are already at play?
Automation is a big trend. Mining operations are becoming more automated and energy production on-site is increasingly moving toward less carbon-intensive methods. There is also a push towards electrification in logistics, though it’s still early days.
What qualities do you think are key for startup founders?
For startups, especially those focused on science and technology, it’s critical to be adaptable.
In software, you often hear ‘fall in love with the problem, not the solution.’ However, in science-based startups, it’s about balancing deep technical knowledge with commercial practicality. It’s important to pair scientific founders with commercially experienced team members to navigate the complex path to scaling. Access to capital is crucial as these companies often require much larger amounts of funding compared to traditional startups.
What’s a quote you love?
Thomas Edison: ‘Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.’
Thank you for reading and listening to The Green Techpreneur, have a good weekend!
#SparkTheTransition,
Marianne