Metycle's $150M Credit Facility: The Hidden Key to Europe's Metal Supply Chain

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-24

### Metycle Just Unlocked $150 Million to Rewire Europe's Metal Supply Chain Metycle, a Cologne-based supplier of secondary copper and aluminium, has secured a €131.7 million ($150 million) credit facility. That's a big number for a company founded just three years ago. But here's the thing: this isn't just about money. It's about making recycled metals behave like a real industrial raw material – specified, traceable, and reliably delivered. The credit facility came from Rivonia Road Capital, a California-based private capital manager that specializes in asset-backed lending. And it arrives on the heels of Metycle's €14 million Series A round in February 2025 and a €4.7 million seed round back in December 2023. ### Why This Matters for the Circular Economy You might be wondering: why does a recycled metals company need a credit facility this large? The answer lies in the fragmented nature of the secondary metals market. Unlike primary metals from mines, recycled metals often come with inconsistent specifications and patchy documentation. That makes them hard to standardize, verify, and – crucially – finance at scale. Metycle is trying to change that. The company buys, upgrades, and supplies copper, aluminium, and other non-ferrous metals to industrial customers worldwide. Over the past 12 months, it traded more than €103 million ($120 million) worth of secondary metals. That's a 150% jump from the prior year. Not bad for a startup with a team spread across 15 countries. ### The Three Pillars of Metycle's Business So how does Metycle actually operate? It's built on three main pillars: - **Global trading operation** – manages sourcing, contracts, and risk across multiple continents. - **SmartSorting Hubs** – use AI-enabled sorting, mechanical separation, and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to turn mixed scrap into feedstock that matches buyer specs. The first hub is in Maasmechelen, Belgium. - **TrustTrack** – a digital layer that links records on material origin, quality, processing, and logistics to each batch and trade. Together, these pillars aim to bring transparency and reliability to a market that desperately needs both. ### The Real Constraint Isn't Demand – It's Predictability Metycle argues that demand for secondary metals isn't the problem. Predictability is. Copper and aluminium are central to electrification, power grids, data center infrastructure, and manufacturing. But primary mine supply takes years to develop. Reliable secondary supply could enable material security much faster. > "Our opportunity is to make secondary supply behave more like an industrial raw material: specified, traceable, and reliably delivered," said Rafael Suchan, co-founder and CEO of Metycle. "This facility gives us the capacity to finance substantially more material through that system and serve customers at a much greater scale." ### What the Credit Facility Actually Enables The new facility will let Metycle finance larger physical metal transactions, move greater volumes of recycled feedstock, and expand its supply to industrial buyers and smelters worldwide. It also provides a repeatable framework to speed up execution for suppliers while delivering larger, more consistent flows of specified secondary feedstock. Daniel Zinn, co-founder and Managing Partner of Rivonia Road Capital, said, "We are proud to support Metycle's next phase of growth. The company has built a differentiated platform that brings greater transparency, reliability and efficiency to the global recycled metals market." ### The Bottom Line Metycle's $150 million credit facility isn't just a vote of confidence. It's a bet that the future of metals is circular, traceable, and financeable. And if the company pulls it off, it could change how the world sources the raw materials for everything from electric vehicles to power grids. Investors alongside Rivonia Road Capital include 2150, Project A, Partech, Market One Capital, Dutch Founders Fund, Crédit Agricole Leasing & Factoring, and SCCF. With this kind of backing, Metycle is positioning itself as a key player in Europe's push for material security and sustainability.