Startup Gradiant Reaches Billion-Dollar Valuation Cleaning Up Wastewater For TSMC, Coca-Cola And Pfizer
Summary
In cleaning up industrial wastewater, and allowing it to be recycled for use, Boston-based Gradiant has built a fast-growing business.Gradiant said Wednesday it had reached a $1 billion valuation the first water-technology startup to attain that milestone with $225 million in funding led by billionaire John Arnolds Centaurus Capital and New York family office BoltRock Holdings. You cannot eliminate reliance on water, but you can reduce it significantly to increase the sustainability by a very long shot, Bajpayee says.For GSK, Gradiant worked up a wastewater treatment program for its large amoxicillin plant in Singapore beginning in January 2020. To treat the sludge we were getting was extremely difficult, says Colin McKee, GSKs head of capital strategy and management.With critical minerals receiving increased political attention, Gradiants water-treatment process is also finding new uses. Oil-field services company Schlumberger , which is an investor as well as a customer, will soon begin using Gradiant to extract the lithium required for batteries that power electric vehicles from brine instead of from rock at a facility in Nevada. SLB president of new energy Gavin Rennick told Forbes India last year that the Gradiant technology was key to its goal of improving sustainability of lithium production at a time of unprecedented growth in demand for the mineral.With the new funding, Bajpayee says that the company plans to expand further into existing markets, which include semiconductors (currently its largest area), pharmaceuticals, food and beverage and critical minerals.