Redwood Materials Stock: Will the Battery Recycling Company IPO?

Learn how to invest in Redwood Materials stock when the IPO arrives. Get access to select pre-IPO companies at Equitybee.

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Redwood Materials Stock IPO Recent News

04/06/2023: Tesla nominates JB Straubel to board of directors
02/22/2023: EV Battery Recycling Has Boomed Too Soon
02/09/2023: Redwood receives conditional $2B DOE loan
01/03/2023: Redwood Materials takes on $200M debt for battery recycling
12/14/2022: Redwood chooses Charleston, SC for new Campus
12/02/2022: Nevada approves $105M in tax incentives for battery plant
12/01/2022: SC’s ‘Project Drift’ Is A Massive Redwood Materials Facility
Older news…

What is Redwood Materials?

Redwood Materials is a sustainable materials company laying the groundwork for the next generation of vehicle and electronics battery recycling. 

As electric-powered vehicle consumption grows, the amount batteries reaching their end-of-life will keep growing.

Electric vehicle battery components will maintain much of their raw material value when the cars drive their last mile. 

Redwood Materials receives the end-of-life vehicle batteries and electronic devices (phones, laptops), extracts and refines the batteries’ raw materials, and returns them to factories producing new batteries.

In addition to recycling, Redwood Materials aims to manufacture copper foils for anodes and is building a giant U.S. factory for producing cathodes. Both are growingly costly components of car batteries. 

Moreover, Redwood Materials aims to shorten and simplify the global battery supply chain by growing capabilities in the U.S.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by 2040, “secondary production from recycled minerals (will) account for up to 12% of total supply requirements for cobalt, around 7% for nickel, and 5% for lithium and copper.” 

That’s an enormous market that will compete against miners to provide lower-cost materials.

Redwood Material was founded in 2017 by J.B. Straubel, a Tesla Co-Founder (fifth employee) who recognized the global supply chain imbalances, bottlenecks, and potential to reduce the environmental impact of battery production. 

Here’s an interesting video about the company and their recycling practices:

Is Redwood Materials Publicly Traded?

No. Redwood Materials is a private company. 

Who Owns Redwood Materials?

Redwood Materials is a venture-backed startup. 

Prominent private investors include Goldman Sachs, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Franklin Templeton, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, The Ford Motor Company, and Bill Gate’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. 

Redwood Materials Valuation

Redwood Materials has raised at least $792 million in private funding. The Redwood Materials valuation is approximately $3.7 billion.

Its last funding round was in September 2021, raising $50 million from Ford.

Can You Buy Redwood Materials on Pre-IPO Marketplaces?

Not at the moment.

The author has not seen evidence of Redwood Material stock availability on pre-IPO investing platforms.

However, shares may become available if early investors or employees want to cash out before the IPO. This may become more likely if the company raises a fresh round of private equity capital. 

The SEC requires pre-IPO investors to be accredited, meaning a net worth above $1 million (not including primary residence) or an income above $200,000 (or $300,000 with a spouse).

Check out our list of top pre-IPO investing platforms for current platforms that may have shares available.

When is the Redwood Materials IPO Date?

There is no Redwood Materials IPO date or timeline set as of now.

However, an IPO is likely forthcoming in the next 3-5 years. 

In a September 2021 interview with Bloomberg, CEO J.B. Straubel said of an IPO, “It’s not off the table, but we’d prefer to grow the company in other ways for a little bit longer.”

Redwood Materials will need to build large facilities to carry out its business plan, requiring billions of upfront capital. For now, private investors are providing that capital.

However, at some point, those investors will want to cash out. A traditional IPO will allow early investors to liquidate their equity and provide an opportunity for the company to raise capital. 

When private companies accept investments from private investors, those investors eventually want to cash out. The best way to maximize returns is through an IPO.

The longer a company stays private and continues to grow, the greater the pressure to conduct an IPO.

An IPO is also an opportunity to raise additional funds to invest in the business. 

We’ll update this page with news as the IPO date approaches.

Watch for a Redwood Materials S-1 filing with the SEC to kick off the process.

What is the Redwood Materials Stock Price?

Redwood Materials is not a publicly-traded company. 

There will be no Redwood Materials stock price until the IPO. 

What is the Redwood Materials Stock Symbol? Redwood Materials Ticker?

Since Redwood Materials is not publicly traded and has not filed its S-1 filing with the SEC, we can only speculate on the Redwood Materials stock symbol. 

Here are a few Redwood Materials ticker suggestions that appear to be available in the U.S.

• RED
• REDW

How to Buy Redwood Materials Stock in the Future

Most investors will not be able to own Redwood materials stock via pre-IPO investing platforms because they require the investor to be accredited. 

When the IPO date arrives, it will still be difficult for most investors to acquire IPO shares. 

The most like way investors will be able to own Redwood Material stock is to wait for the IPO and buy shares after it goes public. However, there may be other opportunities to own the stock before the IPO. 

Here are the options to own the stock.

1. Access Redwood Materials Shares Pre-IPO

As mentioned above, Redwood Materials shares may become available on pre-IPO investing platforms before the IPO. 

This happens when employees or other early investors want to liquidate a portion of their shares without waiting for the public offering. 

To be eligible to buy pre-IPO shares, investors must first be accredited. 

Second, investors must be registered on pre-IPO investing platforms to receive notifications when shares become available. 

A handful of pre-IPO investing platforms have emerged over the past decade to bring liquidity to pre-IPO company investors.

Equitybee provides accredited investors access to pre-IPO startups by funding employee stock options. In exchange, investors gain a portion of the future stock value.

Other pre-IPO platforms include Forge Global, Linqto, and EquityZen. 

Joining pre-IPO investing platforms is free. However, each platform and deal may have a minimum investment amount for accredited investors. 

2. Buy during the Redwood Materials IPO through a broker

Savvy IPO investors may find opportunities to invest during the IPO. That means acquiring shares at the IPO price the night before the company begins trading.

Once reserved for Wall Street’s wealthiest customers, IPO access has become more attainable to retail investors in the past five years. 

Online brokers such as the following give customers free access to IPOs, even with low account balances. 

• TradeStation
• SoFi 
• Robinhood 

Brokers often negotiate exclusive IPO shares, so your access to specific high-demand IPOs will be limited by how many brokerage accounts you have. 

TradeStation and Webull have a longer track record of getting access to more than 200 IPOs and secondary offerings via their partnership with ClickIPO. 

Robinhood and SoFi have the advantage of Silicon Valley networks and history of getting allocations for high-profile IPOs (e.g., Sweetgreen, Rivian).

Check out this list of best brokers for IPO investing to learn more about IPO access for retail investors.

3. Buy Redwood Materials stock after the Redwood Materials IPO

Though waiting for the IPO requires patience, there are advantages to waiting for the stock to become publicly traded before owning. 

First of all, the IPO allows investors to review financials. Pre-IPO investing has limited financials available. 

Second, IPO stock prices typically rise with high-demand companies. You can benefit if you’re in early and sell when the price overheats.

Many IPOs start off hot, then fall once the first quarter is two gets reported. 

In 2021, both Rivian and Robinhood became high-flying IPO stocks. But six months after the IPO, both stocks were more than 80% below their price peak. 

The stock price declines after the IPOs could become excellent entry points if you were not allocated IPO shares. 

Avoid buying overvalued shares immediately after the IPO. Shares often fall after the IPO due to lockup expirations and quarterly earnings disappointments. 

However, the most disruptive companies will be higher in a decade. Patience pays. 

4. Participate in the Directed Share Program (If Available)

Another possibility is a directed share program.

Sometimes when companies file their S-1 SEC filing (to begin the IPO process), they include a directed share program for executives, affiliates, and other people who helped the company grow.

Since Redwood Material’s success will ultimately be thanks to the customers who use its service, it’s possible the company may offer IPO shares to them.

Car dealership owners and used car lots may be valued partners in the future.

This has happened before with more partnership-centric companies. 

For example, Uber offered shares to drivers that completed a certain number of trips.

Airbnb offered IPO shares to hosts. 

Considering the potential growth trajectory of Redwood Materials, pay attention to the S-1 filing for a directed share program. If you’re eventually on the Redwood Materials email list, watch closely at the IPO approaches.

Please bookmark this page for Redwood Materials IPO news as it becomes available. 

Where can I find the Redwood Materials S-1 Filing?

When Redwood Materials gets closer to its IPO date, it will submit an S-1 filing to the SEC. 

Often, companies submit confidentially before the filing is released to the public. 

The filing will post to our recent S-1 filings page when available. 

Redwood Materials News Archive

11/15/2022: Panasonic and Redwood Materials strike battery deal
09/02/2022: Redwood Materials closes in on search for sites in Europe
07/25/2022: Redwood Materials Plans $3.5 Billion Materials Plant in NV
07/12/2022: Volkswagen, Audi tap Redwood Materials to recycle old EV batteries in US
07/11/2022: Battery recycling could be the next darling of the EV era
06/21/2022: Redwood Materials and Toyota collaborate on electric vehicle battery recycling
05/21/2022: Why Electric Car Battery Recycling Matters as Much as the Cars
05/20/2022: JB Straubel on Fixing the Battery Problem
05/10/2022: Redwood Materials aims to start anode copper foil production by end of 2022
04/08/2022: Redwood Materials already gets 6GWh of lithium batteries per year for recycling
01/12/2022: EV sales are about to take off, but questions whether production can keep up
09/22/2022: Redwood Materials and Ford Motor Company Announce Strategic Relationship
09/14/2021: A Tesla Co-Founder Aims To Build an Entire U.S. Battery Industry
07/28/2021: Redwood Materials raises $700M to expand its battery recycling operation

Conclusion

Investors get excited when they identify companies riding extraordinary macroeconomic trends. This can lead us to private companies positioning to profit from massive opportunities. 

However, buying the stock early on can often prove difficult for retail investors. 

Though pre-IPO investing platforms have opened more opportunities, private equity investing is still primarily reserved for the ultra-wealthy, requiring millions to invest in seed and early funding rounds for disruptive companies. 

So if you decide to pursue IPO shares and early equity, maintain reasonable expectations. However, if you identify several favorite IPO companies, you may eventually be able to invest in some of your target companies.

If Redwood Materials stock is on your acquisition list, good luck. Invest in pre-IPO and IPO companies with caution.

* Disclosure: The web page contains affiliate links from our partners. If a reader opens an account or buys a service from a link in this article, we may be compensated at no additional cost to the reader. Opening an account with a broker that provides access to IPOs does not guarantee the customer allocations of specific IPOs. The author is long ABNB, RIVN, SG, and TROW.