Steel production accounts for roughly 8% of the emissions that contribute to global climate change. It is one of the many industries that sits at the foundation of the modern economy. It’s also one of the most resistant ones to decarbonization. One startup that is developing a new technology to address this issue is Boston Metal.

Boston Metal Raises $50 Million for a Great Cause

Bill Gates is one of the funding supporters of Boston Metal

Previously backed by foundations managed by Bill Gates, the new company has just raised roughly $50 million of an approximately $60 million financing round to expand its operations.

According to the studies cited by the consulting firm McKinsey, today's global steel industry can easily find approximately 14% of its potential value at risk if the business is unable to reduce its environmental impact.

Boston Metal, which back in 2019 raised $20 million, uses a special process called molten oxide electrolysis to make steel alloys. It’s eventually emissions-free steel. The first close of the funding came back in December 2018. This is exactly two years before the most recent financing round, according to Tadeu Carneiro, who is the chief executive of the company.

Tadeu Carneiro, chief executive of Boston Metal

Throughout the years, Boston has grown from eight employees to a staff that is close to 50 employees. A Massachusetts-based company The Woburn has also been able to continuously operate its three-pilot lines, producing metal alloys for over a month at a time.

While this steel program remains the ultimate goal, the company is swiftly approaching huge commercialization with its alloy program. This is because it isn’t as reliant on traditional infrastructure to sink costs.

Zero-Carbon Electricity - Is This Possible?

Metal Casting Carneiro also shares that the technology of Boston Metal radically reimagines an industry that hasn’t changed its technology that much since the dawn of the Iron Age in 1200 BCE. No less a tech luminary than Bill Gates himself, Carneiro underlined how important decarbonization is for the metal business. He wrote that Boston Metal was working on a way to make steel using electricity instead of coal and to make it just as strong and more affordable. He thinks that electrification only helps reduce emissions of its uses of clean power, and this is yet another reason why it’s so important to get zero-carbon electricity.