R3 Robotics (formerly Circu Li-ion) today announced €20 million in combined financing to industrialize automated disassembly of electric vehicle systems at scale. The company has raised €14 million in Series A funding, 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, the Flixfounders, former KUKA CEO Peter Mohnen, and EIT Urban Mobility, alongside €6 million in European grants.
The funding coincides with the company’s rebranding from Circu Li-ion to R3 Robotics and a clear expansion of scope: from battery disassembly to automated dismantling of complete electric vehicle systems, including e-drives, power electronics, and other high-value components. The long-term ambition is to enable fully automated disassembly across entire vehicle systems. The new name reflects the company’s industrial focus – Repair, Reuse, Recycle – powered by robotics.
Industrial Disassembly at Scale
As electrification accelerates across mobility and energy systems, end-of-life volumes of complex electrified components are expected to increase sharply. Manual disassembly remains labor-intensive, costly, and difficult to scale safely. R3 Robotics addresses this challenge with a dismantling platform designed for repeatable, high-throughput operation in continuous industrial environments.
European policy reinforces this shift. The Critical Raw Materials Act underscores the need to strengthen secure and resilient domestic supply chains for strategic materials. In parallel, the EU Battery Regulation introduces progressively stricter recycling efficiency targets, including a 70 % target for lithium-based batteries by 2030, alongside material recovery and recycled content requirements. Together with the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, these frameworks are reshaping industrial recycling infrastructure.
“The bottleneck isn’t recycling technology; it’s getting complex electrified systems safely and cost-effectively dismantled at industrial scale,” said 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.”
R3 Robotics Technology
R3 Robotics’ dismantling platform combines computer vision, AI, and specialized robotic tooling to automate the disassembly of lithium-ion battery packs, e-motors, power electronics, and other high-value electrified components. The system minimizes human exposure to high-voltage hazards and delivers the cost structure and reliability required for industrial-scale operations.
The company is working with Fortum Battery Recycling, a major integrated battery recycler active across multiple stages of the European battery recycling value chain, from collection and pre-treatment to material refining, to deploy its automated dismantling technology at industrial scale. Beyond its work with recycling partners, R3 Robotics works directly with automotive OEM customers, processing end-of-life battery systems through its centralized dismantling infrastructure to recover critical raw materials and support secure sourcing.
“R3 Robotics is addressing a critical industrial bottleneck in the supply of strategic raw materials,” said John Glushik at HG Ventures. “Scalable dismantling infrastructure is essential to strengthen resilience and secure access to critical inputs.”
Lighthouse Facility & Strategic Markets
The announcement marks the expansion of R3’s lighthouse industrial facility in Karlsruhe, Germany, designed to demonstrate industrial-scale performance and serve as a reference site. R3 Robotics views Germany and France as key European markets, given their strong automotive and industrial ecosystems, electrification momentum, and concentration of recycling and remanufacturing partners.
“R3 Robotics combines strong industrial execution with a scalable approach to dismantling complex electrified systems,” said Natalia Ruiz, Partner at Suma Capital. “This capability is critical to unlocking materials and components at scale.”
Deployment and Growth Strategy
The Series A financing and additional European grants will support:
“Automated disassembly at this level of complexity represents one of the toughest challenges in industrial robotics: managing variability, safety, and throughput simultaneously,” said Peter Mohnen, former CEO of KUKA. “R3’s approach demonstrates the depth of automation expertise required to make this work at scale.”
Luxembourg robotics company raises €14M Series A and secures €6M in public grants to industrialize AI-powered dismantling as end-of-life volumes accelerate.
