Amazon's first five climate fund investments include Tesla co-founder JB Straubel's startup Redwood Materials
Summary
Redwood Materials, the recycling startup founded by Teslas longtime CTO and co-founder JB Straubel, has landed Amazon as a new investor and customer.Amazons investment in Redwood Materials is one of a handful announced Thursday that stems from the e-commerce giants $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund. For instance, Amazon, an existing investor in Rivian, was a named a participant in the electric automakers $2.5 billion round in July. The startup, which launched in 2017, recently raised $40 million from investors, including Capricorn Investment Group and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the environmental-focused fund launched by Bill Gates that includes Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos as a board member. The company also has customers that have yet to be named on the consumer electronics side, Straubel said.Were recycling and processing things as diverse as cell phone batteries, laptop computers, power tools, power banks, scooters and electric bicycles, he said. So its a kind of an amazing diversity of small- to mid-range applications that today really struggle to find a good solution.