Phoenix Tailings Raises $76M Series B to Scale Domestic Rare Earth Metals Production
Phoenix Tailings, a rare earth metals refining company headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, has secured significant venture and strategic backing to advance its goal of establishing a domestic and environmentally responsible supply chain for critical minerals in the United States. The company’s most recent funding milestone is an expanded Series B round totaling $76 million, providing fresh capital to scale its proprietary processing technology and expand production capacity.
The Series B round was initially raised at $43 million and led by Envisioning Partners, an investment firm focused on climate and sustainability-driven innovation. The round was later extended with additional strategic investors, bringing the total to $76 million and underscoring growing confidence in Phoenix Tailings’ technical progress and commercial potential.
Additional capital in the expanded Series B was anchored by Escape Velocity, a venture firm founded by former Goldman Sachs executives that focuses on transformational technologies with long-term impact. The follow-on investment also included participation from Builders Vision, an investment platform backing sustainable infrastructure and resource independence, and Yamaha Motor Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Yamaha Motor Company. Other investors in the round included M Power, a global deep technology investment firm, and Presidio Ventures, the venture capital arm of Sumitomo Corporation.
Phoenix Tailings is developing a rare earth processing platform that combines separation and metallization into a single integrated process. The company’s technology is designed to produce finished rare earth metals domestically from a range of feedstocks, including mined materials and industrial byproducts, while avoiding the high emissions and hazardous waste typically associated with traditional rare earth refining. This approach positions Phoenix Tailings as both a strategic manufacturing asset and a cleaner alternative within a sector historically known for its environmental challenges.
Funding from the Series B round is being used to support the build-out of Phoenix Tailings’ commercial-scale production facility in Exeter, New Hampshire. The facility is designed to reach production capacity of up to 500 tons of rare earth metals per year once fully operational. Initial output is expected to begin at lower volumes, with a planned ramp-up as the company refines operations and secures additional supply agreements. The metals produced are intended to serve critical industries including defense, electric vehicles, renewable energy, and medical technologies, all of which rely heavily on rare earth elements for high-performance components.
Phoenix Tailings’ investor base reflects the strategic importance of rare earth independence for the United States and its allies. Rare earth metals such as neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium are essential for permanent magnets used in electric motors, wind turbines, and advanced electronics. Today, global processing capacity for these materials remains heavily concentrated outside the United States, creating supply chain vulnerabilities. Phoenix Tailings aims to address this imbalance by establishing a fully domestic refining capability that can support long-term industrial and national security needs.
In addition to private venture funding, Phoenix Tailings has also benefited from non-dilutive support through government-backed programs. The company has received federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy to further develop technologies for extracting critical minerals from unconventional sources such as wastewater and mining byproducts. This combination of private investment and public support has enabled Phoenix Tailings to pursue both near-term commercialization and longer-term research initiatives.
With backing from firms such as Envisioning Partners, Escape Velocity, Builders Vision, Yamaha Motor Ventures, and Presidio Ventures, Phoenix Tailings enters its next phase of growth with strong financial and strategic support. As demand for rare earth metals continues to rise alongside electrification, clean energy deployment, and advanced manufacturing, the company’s funding trajectory highlights increasing investor focus on technologies that can deliver critical materials at scale while reducing environmental impact.
