Ruilong was founded in 2016 and has four recycling plants, three of which are already in operation.

(Image credit: Capital)

Nio Capital has invested in a battery recycling company to continue expanding its presence in the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry chain.

Ruilong Technology recently completed RMB hundreds of millions Series A financing round led by Nio Capital with participation from other investors including Midea Capital.

Ruilong will increase its efforts in waste battery procurement channel development, and technology development after this round of financing, Nio Capital said in a press release today.

As the NEV market booms, battery recycling has important environmental, economic and supply chain security implications, said Zhu Yan, managing partner of Nio Capital.

Ruilong has environmentally friendly processing technology and metal separation technology, with clear advantages in recycling channels, recycling and processing cost control and battery-grade raw material production, according to Zhu.

The company has signed partnership agreements with several battery manufacturers, and the new investment will bring it additional suppliers and industry resources, according to the press release from Nio Capital.

Ruilong was founded in 2016 and its main business includes large-scale industrial utilization of automotive power batteries and digital batteries.

The company currently has four recycling plants, three of which are already in operation and another under construction.

Ruilong already has 100,000 tons of battery dismantling capacity and tens of thousands of tons of wet smelting capacity for battery-grade cobalt, nickel and lithium products.

The company uses retired and used lithium batteries as feedstock to efficiently process almost all types of lithium-ion batteries, according to Nio Capital.

With the rapid development of the NEV industry, the power battery recycle market is gaining more attention.

By 2025, the global battery recycling market will exceed RMB 100 billion and reach RMB 150 billion in 2027, according to a previous forecast by market research firm GGII.

Nio Capital is a fund established by William Li, the founder, chairman and CEO of electric vehicle company Nio, and Li currently serves as its managing partner.