Princeton Critical Minerals Raises $16M

Princeton Critical Minerals (PCM), a spinout from Princeton University, announced it has raised $16 million in combined equity and non-dilutive funding to scale its brine-based lithium production platform. The financing includes an $11 million Series A round led by SOSV, with participation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Prospect Innovation, Astorg, Flux (text-to-image model), and the United States — New Jersey Economic Development Authority. The company also secured over $5 million in grant funding from the United States — National Science Foundation, United States — Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, and NJEDA. PCM's technology improves lithium extraction from brine resources, which contain over half of the world's lithium reserves, using evaporation enhancement, AI-enabled monitoring, and selective crystallization. The company recently deployed its Lilypad technology in Chile, transitioning from pilot to commercial production, and is preparing for U.S. deployments. The funding will support manufacturing scale-up, commercial expansion, and U.S.-based production capabilities.