DEScycle secures European and UK funding amid critical raw materials push

As the UK and Europe race to strengthen critical raw materials supply chains, DEScycle, the UK company building next-generation metals processing infrastructure for critical and precious metals recovery, has secured more than €10m in confirmed non-dilutive funding over the past 10 months from European and UK innovation programmes.

The funding has been secured across a series of competitive UK and European programmes, including €5 million from EU Horizon, €1.5 million from Germany’s SPRIND, €2.5 million from the EIC Accelerator, £0.9 million awarded through Innovate UK Investor Partnerships and £0.5 million through a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.

This funding will support workstreams that are strategically important to DEScycle’s move toward industrial validation. This includes operating its demo plant for longer, generating additional data to inform design decisions, expanding customer trial capabilities and integrating complementary technologies into the company’s wider platform. It will also support the development of digital product passports, intended to provide traceability for recovered metals and help customers understand provenance across the supply chain.

The announcement comes as both the UK and Europe seek to strengthen critical raw materials capability and build more resilient supply chains for sectors including advanced manufacturing, electrification, AI infrastructure and digital systems. Governments and industrial customers are placing greater emphasis on secure, traceable and geographically resilient sources of supply. Yet metals processing infrastructure remains highly centralised, capital-intensive and slow to scale, creating a strategic gap for countries and industry players seeking to build greater sovereign capability.

While DEScycle is headquartered in the UK and developing its demo plant in Teesside, the company’s recent funding momentum includes significant European backing, reflecting the shared challenge facing governments and industry as they look to secure access to critical and precious metals.

Construction of DEScycle’s demo plant is underway in Teesside, with launch targeted for H2 2026, as the business progresses toward repeatable commercial deployment.

DEScycle is developing a distributed, modular metals processing platform to recover critical and precious metals closer to where materials are generated. Starting with electronic waste, the company aims to turn above-ground metal resources into resilient domestic supply, reducing exposure to long, geographically concentrated supply chains while supporting UK industrial capability.

Fred White, co-founder and chief commercial officer at DEScycle, said: “Critical raw materials are becoming a strategic priority for both the UK and Europe, and that is creating growing demand for new metals processing infrastructure. Securing more than €10m in confirmed non-dilutive funding across competitive European and UK programmes is a strong signal of the importance of domestic metals recovery.

“For DEScycle, this funding helps de-risk deployment by allowing us to run our demo plant for longer, generate more data and make better design decisions before commercial scale-up. It also enables us to trial and integrate complementary technologies into our platform, helping us bring a stronger product to market.”

The company’s recent funding momentum also reflects a broader challenge for UK deep tech: moving from promising technology development into repeatable industrial deployment. DEScycle has secured strategic and commercial validation from partners including Mitsubishi, GAP Group and Cisco, with GAP Group and Cisco confirmed for customer trials in 2026 as the company moves toward broader commercial engagement.

DEScycle is working toward demo-plant commercial validation and key techno-economic milestones ahead of broader commercial deployment.