Lithosquare, a startup speeding up the exploration of critical minerals, just raised $25 million from World fund, Kindred Capital and others.
Founded in 2024 by mining engineer Aymeric Préveral-Etcheverry, the Paris-based startup uses AI to cut manual and time-consuming tasks in the discovery of critical materials deposits, which also helps to de-risks possible new sites. Simon Leclair joined as founding chief operating officer shortly after.
Demand for critical minerals — used in everything from clean energy technologies to semiconductors, smart phones, and defence applications — is soaring. The supply chain for different metals is highly concentrated, however, creating concerns around sovereignty and resilience. China controls around half of the world’s rare earth elements extraction, for instance, while most of the world’s nickel comes from Indonesia.
“We still heavily depend on oil and gas in order to make our energy work,” Préveral-Etcheverry tells Tech Funding News. “There is this massive opportunity now to go beyond that and actually go to electrification. We want to be part of this change, and unlock the shift for energy.”
Countries are attempting to shore up their own supply chain. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act targets around 10% of annual consumption of critical materials to be extracted domestically, a target also found in the UK, though it goes a step further by including processing and refining.
Lithosquare combines foundational AI models and field data with internal geology expertise to automate some of the exploration of mineral deposits. By reducing manual and time-consuming work, the startup reckons it speeds up processes by a factor of 10.
It says its “geology‑informed” platform can understand where materials are and whether they come from a volcanic source, deep fluids, or elsewhere; how metal‑bearing fluids move and concentrate; and whether there are structural traps in deposits.
Instead of repeatedly looking in the same mature regions, such as Chile, the startup helps geologists test possible mining sites in frontier and greenfield areas, for instance in Botswana or Morocco. Being able to unlock new mining areas is its key differentiator, Préveral-Etcheverry says.
Lithosquare works alongside exploration and mining companies rather than selling a pure software licence. It has an outcome-based business model, meaning it has revenue‑sharing agreements for if a discovery becomes a producing mine.
Scaling mining and recycling in parallel
The idea for the company pre-dates the push for sovereignty. Préveral-Etcheverry became “obsessed” with the critical minerals supply chain as promises of battery gigafactories grabbed headlines.
“It was quite clear that there was a massive issue, especially around copper, in order to make our economic transitions. The energy transition, digital transition — we won’t be able to make them happen if we don’t have the metals,” Préveral-Etcheverry says.
Lithosquare’s platform could enable around 140 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent of avoided emissions per year by 2040, according to World Fund analysis. These savings come from “getting the metals that electrification, grid storage and EV batteries depend on into the system faster,” Dr. Nadine Geiser, principal at World Fund, tells TFN.
“Delays in critical mineral supply translate directly into delays in displacing fossil fuels,” she adds.
“Within extraction itself, better targeting also cuts speculative drilling and the localised environmental damage of exploration that goes nowhere. That’s a real efficiency gain on top of the headline climate impact.”
Countries are also investing heavily into metals recycling, with the long-term goal of reducing the need for virgin material. Préveral-Etcheverry doesn’t see recycling and mining as an either-or. “We cannot afford to do one of these, we need to do them all,” he says.
Indeed, “you can’t recycle materials that haven’t been mined yet,” Geiser adds. “The stock of copper, lithium, and nickel in circulation today is a small fraction of what the transition requires, so primary supply must grow first to create the feedstock for a circular system later.”
Lithosquare’s current focus metals are copper, rare earths and lithium, and the startup is working with mining companies across the US, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. It will use the fresh funds to expand this scope, including the opening of a US office to be closer to existing partners.
The startup will double its headcount to around 40 by the end of the year. Préveral-Etcheverry says he is dedicated to building a team that reflects the geographic and cultural diversity of the regions his company works in.
The fresh cash includes a small pre-seed round, which was previously unannounced. French venture capital funds Daphni, Omnes Capital and Ovni Capital also cut the startup a cheque.
