Business Roundup

Panasonic will help Schlumberger New Energy optimize its process for direct extraction of lithium from brine. Schlumberger is testing the process in Clayton Valley, Nevada, about 320 km from Panasonic’s electric vehicle battery plant in Sparks, Nevada.

Nouryon has signed a 10-year agreement to supply sodium chlorate to Metsä Fibre’s new wood pulp mill in Kemi, Finland. Nouryon will supply the bleaching agent from its facility in Oulu, Finland, which it is upgrading to be powered by renewable energy.

Monolith Materials has received an undisclosed amount of funding from SK Group and other investors. The firm plans to use the money to expand its production of carbon black, ammonia, and green hydrogen from natural gas in Nebraska.

Plug Power will build a plant to make 15 metric tons of liquid hydrogen per day in Camden County, Georgia, using renewable electricity. The facility will cost $84 million and open in 2022.

Yposkesi, a drug services firm, will add a second cell and gene therapy facility at its site near Paris. The $71 million investment in the 5,000 m² facility is backed by SK Pharmteco, which took a majority stake in Yposkesi earlier this year.

Umoja Biopharma has raised $210 million in series B financing. The Seattle-based company specializes in cell therapies, including technology that could allow researchers to reprogram immune cells without taking them out of people.

Kurome Therapeutics has raised $15 million in series A financing led by Medicxi and Affinity Asset Advisors. The Cincinnati-based company is developing treatments for tumor cells that have figured out how to evade the immune system.

Alentis Therapeutics has raised $67 million in series B financing led by Morningside Venture Investments. The Swiss company is developing treatments for fibrosis, including therapies that target the protein claudin-1.