tozero is committed to its mission to truly bring lithium-ion battery waste to zero. With its novel hydrometallurgical (i.e. wet chemical)battery recycling approach, it can maximize the recovery of critical raw materials (lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite)from both lithium-ion batteries that have reached their end of life, and scrap created during the production of new batteries.Proven on a daily basis in an operational pilot plant (commissioned in July 2023) close to Munich, Germany, tozero already now fulfillsthe recovery rates for critical raw materials from lithium-ion battery waste required by the recently enforced EU Battery Directive for2027 and 2031 and established itself as one of the leading battery recycling startups in Europe. In addition, the use of less aggressivechemicals than competitors and a mostly closed circular production process reduces the carbon footprint for batteries using tozero’srecycled material compared to batteries using mined materials by up to 80%.Considering an initial pre-seed funding of EUR 3.5mn in 2022, receiving the EIC grant would allow to significantly accelerate tozero´sscale up to industry-scale commercialization and bridge the gap for the next funding round. First, this includes additional funds fromthe EIC for the purchasing and in-house optimization of chemical reactors tailored to the innovative hydrometallurgical process oftozero. Second, it allows us to largely automate our processing and prepare for industry-scale processing. Third, it supports in thecreation of a full lifecycle assessment that is required to officially accredit our CO2e savings and helps to identify the largest lever tofurther reduce our environmental footprint. All three aspects combined allow to reach an industrial scale proof of our operations andunlock a large equity financing round in 2026.