Investment to accelerate critical materials recovery and strengthen UK supply chains

The funding round, predominantly backed by existing investors, will support the commissioning of DEScycle’s Wilton Centre demonstration plant and accelerate the commercial deployment of the company’s technology. 

The investment follows a period of strong momentum for DEScycle, including strategic agreements with Cisco and Mitsubishi and the formation of a joint venture with UK waste recycler GAP Group to support delivery of its first commercial-scale facility. 

Commissioning of the demonstration plant is underway.  Once operational, the facility will demonstrate DEScycle’s technology at an industrially relevant scale and provide a critical step towards commercial deployment. 

DEScycle's demonstration plant comissioning event at Wilton Centre in July 2026.

DEScycle's demonstration plant comissioning event at Wilton Centre in July 2026.

This investment comes as the UK government increases its focus on strengthening domestic critical minerals capability through a recently announced £50 million programme supporting projects across extraction, processing and recycling. As demand for critical materials continues to grow across sectors, including advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure and electrification, improving how valuable resources are recovered and reused is becoming increasingly important to long-term economic resilience and supply chain security. 

DEScycle has developed a low-impact process that recovers valuable metals from e-waste using low-temperature solvent technology. Compared with conventional methods, which can be energy-intensive, the approach is designed to reduce environmental impact while improving recovery efficiency. 

The company has already demonstrated metal recovery rates of more than 99% at bench scale and reports that its process could reduce carbon emissions by up to 98% and energy use by around 48% compared with conventional approaches. 

The investment builds on CPI’s existing relationship with DEScycle, which began through collaborative R&D and has evolved into ongoing investment and technical support. Through CPI Enterprises, DEScycle has advanced from technology development to commercial deployment, and leveraged CPI’s technical expertise and scale-up infrastructure at sites across the north-east.