Why We Invested in ChemFinity - Pace Ventures Insights

At Pace Ventures, we partner with founders who are fundamentally reshaping legacy industries. That’s why we are thrilled to announce our investment in ChemFinity Technologies, a company developing a breakthrough platform to secure a domestic and sustainable supply of critical minerals.

The Opportunity: A Bottleneck in the Energy Transition

Our deep dive into the critical minerals sector revealed a significant bottleneck in the global push for electrification and clean energy. The demand for these materials is projected to increase 6x by 2040, creating a market opportunity exceeding $800 billion. However, the current supply chain is fragile and inefficient. The United States imports 80% of its critical minerals, mostly from China, which controls around two-thirds of the production and refining of the major critical metals (lithium, graphite, cobalt, copper, etc.,) and conventional mining accounts for a staggering 4-7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, bringing a new mine online is a monumental task, often taking over 15 years for permitting and commissioning.

We initially explored targeting high-volume metals like copper, where new extraction processes could have a massive impact. However, the low margins in these markets demand immense scale from day one, making it a challenging barrier to entry for a startup (or anyone for that matter). This led us to focus on lower-volume, higher-value commodities, especially Platinum Group Metals (PGMs).

PGMs are essential for applications ranging from catalytic converters and hydrogen fuel cells to advanced electronics. A significant portion of their supply comes from recycling, yet the methods are outdated. Current processes, like pyrometallurgy, involve smelting at over 1500°C and require more than 15 purification steps. This inefficiency, coupled with low recycling rates for other critical sources like batteries (5%) and solar panels (10%), creates a clear opening for disruptive technology.

Our thesis became clear: a company that could master the high-margin, technically demanding PGM market could prove its technology and unit economics at a manageable scale. This de-risks the platform, creating a clear pathway to later address larger, lower-margin metal markets—a strategy that aligns perfectly with the validation needs of major industry players and offers a clear path to a billion-dollar outcome.

ChemFinity’s Solution: Precision Refining for a Circular Economy

ChemFinity is executing this exact strategy. The team has developed a revolutionary sorbent technology that acts like a chemical magnet, selectively extracting specific metals from complex liquid streams with unparalleled precision. This core innovation, protected by 7 patents, is:

Efficient: It enables a low-cost refining process that is 3x cheaper than conventional mining and reduces the reliance on energy-intensive smelting.
Sustainable: The process boasts a 100x lower footprint in CO2 emissions, energy, and water consumption.
Robust & Versatile: The material is highly resilient and can be tuned to target over 20 different minerals, from precious metals like platinum and gold to essential battery materials like cobalt and nickel.

By focusing first on PGMs from catalytic converters, ChemFinity addresses a market where their technological edge provides a decisive advantage. Their superior efficiency allows them to partner with existing recyclers or even purchase feedstock at a premium while maintaining profitable unit economics. This strategy not only unlocks a valuable domestic market but also strengthens the U.S. supply chain, reducing dependence on foreign refiners.

ChemFinity’s platform transforms the industry’s structure from a linear, wasteful model to a clean, circular one. Their vision is to become a central hub for metal refining, offering a suite of high-purity metals to customers. Because the technology provides drastically better unit economics, they can buffer in higher feedstock prices while still selling metals at profitable margins.

The Team: Scientific Rigor Meets Entrepreneurial Drive

Our conviction in ChemFinity is rooted in the strength of its founding team. Adam Uliana and Ever Velasquez met during their PhDs in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley in the renowned lab of Prof. Jeffrey Long. They are world-class material scientists who spent years developing the core technology that forms the foundation of the company.

What sets them apart is their seamless blend of deep scientific rigor with a remarkable sense of urgency and commercial acumen. In less than two years, they built a team of 8, established a 3,500-ft² facility, and secured over $6 million in non-dilutive funding from prestigious institutions like the U.S. Department of Energy and Breakthrough Energy Fellows—all before raising a single dollar of equity.

Our first meeting with Adam and Ever revealed their unique drive. They didn't need financing, so it took some convincing. When they finally hosted us at their Brooklyn lab, it was one of the most impressive site visits we've experienced. They had meticulously prepared experiments for us, demonstrating firsthand the challenges they were solving and the elegance of their solution. We witnessed a team operating with incredible ambition, precision, and mutual respect. Their journey as second-generation immigrants who have achieved so much through grit and hard work is truly inspiring.

Our Co-Investors

We have been working with the team since 2023 and are proud to be their first institutional investors. We are thrilled to be joined by a syndicate of mission-aligned partners, including At One Ventures, Overture, Closed Loop Ventures Group, Climate Capital, and WovenEarth, to support ChemFinity as they scale their operations and prepare for full commercial pilots in 2027. A warm and official welcome to the Pace Ventures Team to Adam, Ever, and team!

At Pace Ventures, we partner with founders who are fundamentally reshaping legacy industries. That’s why we are thrilled to announce our investment in ChemFinity Technologies, a company developing a breakthrough platform to secure a domestic and sustainable supply of critical minerals.

The Opportunity: A Bottleneck in the Energy Transition

Our deep dive into the critical minerals sector revealed a significant bottleneck in the global push for electrification and clean energy. The demand for these materials is projected to increase 6x by 2040, creating a market opportunity exceeding $800 billion. However, the current supply chain is fragile and inefficient. The United States imports 80% of its critical minerals, mostly from China, which controls around two-thirds of the production and refining of the major critical metals (lithium, graphite, cobalt, copper, etc.,) and conventional mining accounts for a staggering 4-7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, bringing a new mine online is a monumental task, often taking over 15 years for permitting and commissioning.

We initially explored targeting high-volume metals like copper, where new extraction processes could have a massive impact. However, the low margins in these markets demand immense scale from day one, making it a challenging barrier to entry for a startup (or anyone for that matter). This led us to focus on lower-volume, higher-value commodities, especially Platinum Group Metals (PGMs).

PGMs are essential for applications ranging from catalytic converters and hydrogen fuel cells to advanced electronics. A significant portion of their supply comes from recycling, yet the methods are outdated. Current processes, like pyrometallurgy, involve smelting at over 1500°C and require more than 15 purification steps. This inefficiency, coupled with low recycling rates for other critical sources like batteries (5%) and solar panels (10%), creates a clear opening for disruptive technology.

Our thesis became clear: a company that could master the high-margin, technically demanding PGM market could prove its technology and unit economics at a manageable scale. This de-risks the platform, creating a clear pathway to later address larger, lower-margin metal markets—a strategy that aligns perfectly with the validation needs of major industry players and offers a clear path to a billion-dollar outcome.

ChemFinity’s Solution: Precision Refining for a Circular Economy

ChemFinity is executing this exact strategy. The team has developed a revolutionary sorbent technology that acts like a chemical magnet, selectively extracting specific metals from complex liquid streams with unparalleled precision. This core innovation, protected by 7 patents, is:

Efficient: It enables a low-cost refining process that is 3x cheaper than conventional mining and reduces the reliance on energy-intensive smelting.
Sustainable: The process boasts a 100x lower footprint in CO2 emissions, energy, and water consumption.
Robust & Versatile: The material is highly resilient and can be tuned to target over 20 different minerals, from precious metals like platinum and gold to essential battery materials like cobalt and nickel.

By focusing first on PGMs from catalytic converters, ChemFinity addresses a market where their technological edge provides a decisive advantage. Their superior efficiency allows them to partner with existing recyclers or even purchase feedstock at a premium while maintaining profitable unit economics. This strategy not only unlocks a valuable domestic market but also strengthens the U.S. supply chain, reducing dependence on foreign refiners.

ChemFinity’s platform transforms the industry’s structure from a linear, wasteful model to a clean, circular one. Their vision is to become a central hub for metal refining, offering a suite of high-purity metals to customers. Because the technology provides drastically better unit economics, they can buffer in higher feedstock prices while still selling metals at profitable margins.

The Team: Scientific Rigor Meets Entrepreneurial Drive

Our conviction in ChemFinity is rooted in the strength of its founding team. Adam Uliana and Ever Velasquez met during their PhDs in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley in the renowned lab of Prof. Jeffrey Long. They are world-class material scientists who spent years developing the core technology that forms the foundation of the company.

What sets them apart is their seamless blend of deep scientific rigor with a remarkable sense of urgency and commercial acumen. In less than two years, they built a team of 8, established a 3,500-ft² facility, and secured over $6 million in non-dilutive funding from prestigious institutions like the U.S. Department of Energy and Breakthrough Energy Fellows—all before raising a single dollar of equity.

Our first meeting with Adam and Ever revealed their unique drive. They didn't need financing, so it took some convincing. When they finally hosted us at their Brooklyn lab, it was one of the most impressive site visits we've experienced. They had meticulously prepared experiments for us, demonstrating firsthand the challenges they were solving and the elegance of their solution. We witnessed a team operating with incredible ambition, precision, and mutual respect. Their journey as second-generation immigrants who have achieved so much through grit and hard work is truly inspiring.

Our Co-Investors

We have been working with the team since 2023 and are proud to be their first institutional investors. We are thrilled to be joined by a syndicate of mission-aligned partners, including At One Ventures, Overture, Closed Loop Ventures Group, Climate Capital, and WovenEarth, to support ChemFinity as they scale their operations and prepare for full commercial pilots in 2027. A warm and official welcome to the Pace Ventures Team to Adam, Ever, and team!

At Pace Ventures, we partner with founders who are fundamentally reshaping legacy industries. That’s why we are thrilled to announce our investment in ChemFinity Technologies, a company developing a breakthrough platform to secure a domestic and sustainable supply of critical minerals.

The Opportunity: A Bottleneck in the Energy Transition

Our deep dive into the critical minerals sector revealed a significant bottleneck in the global push for electrification and clean energy. The demand for these materials is projected to increase 6x by 2040, creating a market opportunity exceeding $800 billion. However, the current supply chain is fragile and inefficient. The United States imports 80% of its critical minerals, mostly from China, which controls around two-thirds of the production and refining of the major critical metals (lithium, graphite, cobalt, copper, etc.,) and conventional mining accounts for a staggering 4-7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, bringing a new mine online is a monumental task, often taking over 15 years for permitting and commissioning.

We initially explored targeting high-volume metals like copper, where new extraction processes could have a massive impact. However, the low margins in these markets demand immense scale from day one, making it a challenging barrier to entry for a startup (or anyone for that matter). This led us to focus on lower-volume, higher-value commodities, especially Platinum Group Metals (PGMs).

PGMs are essential for applications ranging from catalytic converters and hydrogen fuel cells to advanced electronics. A significant portion of their supply comes from recycling, yet the methods are outdated. Current processes, like pyrometallurgy, involve smelting at over 1500°C and require more than 15 purification steps. This inefficiency, coupled with low recycling rates for other critical sources like batteries (5%) and solar panels (10%), creates a clear opening for disruptive technology.

Our thesis became clear: a company that could master the high-margin, technically demanding PGM market could prove its technology and unit economics at a manageable scale. This de-risks the platform, creating a clear pathway to later address larger, lower-margin metal markets—a strategy that aligns perfectly with the validation needs of major industry players and offers a clear path to a billion-dollar outcome.

ChemFinity’s Solution: Precision Refining for a Circular Economy

ChemFinity is executing this exact strategy. The team has developed a revolutionary sorbent technology that acts like a chemical magnet, selectively extracting specific metals from complex liquid streams with unparalleled precision. This core innovation, protected by 7 patents, is:

Efficient: It enables a low-cost refining process that is 3x cheaper than conventional mining and reduces the reliance on energy-intensive smelting.
Sustainable: The process boasts a 100x lower footprint in CO2 emissions, energy, and water consumption.
Robust & Versatile: The material is highly resilient and can be tuned to target over 20 different minerals, from precious metals like platinum and gold to essential battery materials like cobalt and nickel.

By focusing first on PGMs from catalytic converters, ChemFinity addresses a market where their technological edge provides a decisive advantage. Their superior efficiency allows them to partner with existing recyclers or even purchase feedstock at a premium while maintaining profitable unit economics. This strategy not only unlocks a valuable domestic market but also strengthens the U.S. supply chain, reducing dependence on foreign refiners.

ChemFinity’s platform transforms the industry’s structure from a linear, wasteful model to a clean, circular one. Their vision is to become a central hub for metal refining, offering a suite of high-purity metals to customers. Because the technology provides drastically better unit economics, they can buffer in higher feedstock prices while still selling metals at profitable margins.

The Team: Scientific Rigor Meets Entrepreneurial Drive

Our conviction in ChemFinity is rooted in the strength of its founding team. Adam Uliana and Ever Velasquez met during their PhDs in Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley in the renowned lab of Prof. Jeffrey Long. They are world-class material scientists who spent years developing the core technology that forms the foundation of the company.

What sets them apart is their seamless blend of deep scientific rigor with a remarkable sense of urgency and commercial acumen. In less than two years, they built a team of 8, established a 3,500-ft² facility, and secured over $6 million in non-dilutive funding from prestigious institutions like the U.S. Department of Energy and Breakthrough Energy Fellows—all before raising a single dollar of equity.

Our first meeting with Adam and Ever revealed their unique drive. They didn't need financing, so it took some convincing. When they finally hosted us at their Brooklyn lab, it was one of the most impressive site visits we've experienced. They had meticulously prepared experiments for us, demonstrating firsthand the challenges they were solving and the elegance of their solution. We witnessed a team operating with incredible ambition, precision, and mutual respect. Their journey as second-generation immigrants who have achieved so much through grit and hard work is truly inspiring.

Our Co-Investors

We have been working with the team since 2023 and are proud to be their first institutional investors. We are thrilled to be joined by a syndicate of mission-aligned partners, including At One Ventures, Overture, Closed Loop Ventures Group, Climate Capital, and WovenEarth, to support ChemFinity as they scale their operations and prepare for full commercial pilots in 2027. A warm and official welcome to the Pace Ventures Team to Adam, Ever, and team!