Redwood Materials Reportedly Cuts 5% of Staff After $350M Raise

Redwood Materials, the Nevada-based battery recycling and cathode production company, is reportedly laying off around 5% of its workforce shortly after securing a $350 million funding round, Bloomberg News reported.

With roughly 1,200 employees, the reduction is expected to impact a few dozen workers.

Founded in 2017 by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, Redwood Materials began by recycling scrap from battery cell manufacturing, consumer electronics, and end-of-life EV batteries. The company recovers key materials — including cobalt, nickel, and lithium — and sells them back to customers such as Panasonic. Over time, Redwood expanded its operations to include cathode production.

More recently, the company introduced a business line that repurposes used EV batteries for energy storage products — a market now experiencing rapid growth amid soaring power demands from AI-driven data centres. As of June, Redwood had accumulated more than one gigawatt-hour of batteries intended for this purpose.

The company’s $350 million Series E round, announced in October, pushed its valuation to approximately $6 billion, as previously reported by TechCrunch. A company spokesperson did not comment on the reported job cuts.