Venture Center’s 4th Lithium Accelerator Underway With 3 New Companies

The Venture Center this week launched the fourth cohort of its Arkansas Lithium Technology Accelerator (ALTA), introducing three battery and critical-mineral technology companies to the state’s lithium producers, researchers and investors during a three-week tour across Arkansas.

The Details

The companies in the latest cohort are:

• ACT-ion Battery Technologies of Dallas, an advanced materials company developing a proprietary continuous manufacturing process for cathode active materials (CAMs).

• Princeton Critical Minerals, a Princeton University spinoff developing technology for efficient, sustainable extraction of lithium and other critical minerals from brine.

• Arcam, founded at MIT in 2021, which has developed ReCAM, a direct-recycling process that turns spent lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries into a cathode active material it calls LFPure.

Together, the three firms span the supply chain from brine extraction to cathode manufacturing to battery recycling.

• “Arkansas has an opportunity not only to produce lithium, but to help build the technologies and supply chains that turn that resource into long-term economic and strategic value,” said Jesse Edmondson, director of government relations for Standard Lithium Ltd., which is an ALTA sponsor.

• “ALTA brings promising companies directly into the ecosystem where this work is happening, giving them the opportunity to engage with producers, researchers and industry partners and explore how their technologies can be deployed at commercial scale,” he said.

ALTA was developed with Standard Lithium of Vancouver, British Columbia, and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, with support from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Walton Family Foundation. It is the country’s first accelerator dedicated to lithium and battery supply-chain innovation.

What's Next

The cohort began Sept. 8-10 in El Dorado and Magnolia, where the El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce hosted a welcome dinner. It moves to Little Rock on Sept. 14-16, then to Bentonville and Fayetteville Sept. 21-23, concluding with a Demo Day Sept. 23 at The Record in Bentonville featuring company presentations and investor engagement.

More: Read coverage of this cohort in the El Dorado News-Times, the Magnolia Reporter, Talk Business & Politics and Arkansas Money & Politics.

Previously: Read more about previous ALTA cohorts and cohort companies in the Lithium Link archive.