R3 Robotics Secures €20 Million to Revolutionise EV Dismantling at Scale

In a major move that could reshape the future of electric vehicle recycling, R3 Robotics—formerly known as Circu Li-ion—has secured €20 million in combined financing to scale up its groundbreaking automated disassembly technology for electric vehicle systems.

The Luxembourg-based deep tech company announced today a €14 million Series A funding round co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital, with participation from Oetker Collection, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and existing shareholders including BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT Urban Mobility. This was complemented by €6 million in European grants, bringing the total investment to €20 million.

This funding arrives alongside a significant strategic pivot and rebranding. While Circu Li-ion initially focused on battery pack disassembly, R3 Robotics is now expanding its technological scope to encompass the automated dismantling of complete electric vehicle systems—including e-drives, power electronics, and other high-value electrified components.

The Industrial Challenge: Why Manual Dismantling Won’t Scale

The electric vehicle revolution is accelerating, but its end-of-life infrastructure remains a critical bottleneck. Today’s manual disassembly processes are labour-intensive, expensive, and difficult to scale safely. Workers face significant risks when handling high-voltage systems, and the throughput simply cannot match the exponential growth in EV adoption.

R3 Robotics addresses this challenge head-on with its innovative dismantling platform, engineered for repeatable, high-throughput operation in continuous industrial environments. The system leverages computer vision, artificial intelligence, and specialised robotic tooling to automate the disassembly of lithium-ion battery packs, electric motors, power electronics, and other electrified components.

“The bottleneck isn’t recycling technology; it’s clean feedstock—meaning getting complex electrified systems safely and cost-effectively dismantled at an industrial scale,” explains Antoine Welter, CEO and co-founder of R3 Robotics. “We’re building a dismantling platform that turns end-of-life systems into a strategic source of critical materials and reusable components for advanced industrial economies.”

Policy Tailwinds: Europe’s Regulatory Push

R3 Robotics’ timing couldn’t be better. European policy frameworks are rapidly evolving to address critical raw material dependencies and circular economy imperatives. The Critical Raw Materials Act emphasises the need to strengthen secure and resilient domestic supply chains for strategic materials, while the EU Battery Regulation introduces progressively stricter recycling-efficiency targets—including a 70 per cent target for lithium-based batteries by 2030—alongside material recovery and recycled-content requirements.

These regulations work in concert with the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive to reshape industrial recycling infrastructure across the continent. For R3 Robotics, this creates a regulatory tailwind that transforms compliance requirements into commercial opportunities.

Strategic Partnerships and Market Position

The company has already begun deploying its technology in partnership with Fortum Battery Recycling, a major integrated battery recycler active across multiple stages of the European battery recycling value chain. Additionally, R3 Robotics works directly with automotive OEM customers, processing end-of-life battery systems through its centralised dismantling infrastructure to recover critical raw materials and support secure sourcing.

This dual approach—serving both recycling partners and original equipment manufacturers—positions R3 Robotics uniquely in the market. By providing clean, pre-processed feedstock to recyclers while helping OEMs meet regulatory compliance and sustainability goals, the company has created a value proposition that resonates across the electric vehicle ecosystem.

“Scalable dismantling infrastructure is essential to strengthen resilience and secure access to critical inputs,” notes John Glushik at HG Ventures. “R3 Robotics is addressing a critical industrial bottleneck in the supply of strategic raw materials.”

Natalia Ruiz, Partner at Suma Capital, emphasises the company’s execution capabilities: “R3 Robotics combines strong industrial execution with a scalable approach to dismantling complex electrified systems. This capability is critical to unlocking materials and components at scale.”

Strengthening the Leadership Team

To further bolster its strategic development, R3 Robotics has added Peter Mohnen, former CEO of KUKA—one of the world’s leading robotics manufacturers—to its advisory board. This appointment signals the company’s commitment to maintaining technological leadership in an increasingly competitive field.

The Future of Circular Mobility

As electric vehicles become mainstream, the question of what happens to these complex machines at the end of their useful lives becomes increasingly urgent. R3 Robotics’ automated dismantling platform represents a crucial piece of the circular economy puzzle, enabling the recovery of valuable materials and components that can be reintegrated into new vehicle production.

The €20 million investment will accelerate the company’s industrial deployment plans, allowing it to scale its technology across multiple European markets and potentially beyond. With policy frameworks aligning with technological capabilities, R3 Robotics appears well-positioned to become a cornerstone of Europe’s sustainable mobility infrastructure.

The transition to electric mobility represents one of the most significant industrial transformations of our time. Companies like R3 Robotics, which address the critical infrastructure challenges that enable this transition to be truly sustainable, will play an essential role in determining whether the electric vehicle revolution delivers on its promise of environmental benefit or simply shifts environmental burdens from one stage of the value chain to another.

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