Hertha Metals, a steel company that's building the "world’s first single-step steel and high-purity iron process for lower-cost domestic production," today announced the close of a $133.65 million Series A round.
The round was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Doerr Capital, with participation from Toyota Ventures and Siemens Financial Services. It includes a $65 million equity investment from the U.S. Government, executed through its Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program in partnership with the Economic Defense Unit.
The funding will finance the construction of Hertha Chalyx, the company’s new facility that plans to produce 10,000 tons of steel-grade and magnet-grade high-purity iron. Chalyx, alongside Hertha’s pilot plant, Pi100, will be the first modern iron and steel innovation complex, a step toward reshoring iron and steel production central to IBAS’s industrial base mission.
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Hertha's Flex-HERSTM process replaces the multi-step, coal-dependent blast furnace method with a single continuous reactor that processes any grade of iron ore and uses natural gas or hydrogen as a reductant. The result is iron and steel at 25% lower production costs than conventional blast furnaces, with emissions reductions of 50% using natural gas and up to 98% using hydrogen.
"Every electric vehicle, aerospace platform, radar system and data center depends on domestic iron and magnet feedstock suppliers," said Dr. Laureen Meroueh, CEO and Founder of Hertha Metals, in a statement. "Hertha Chalyx closes that gap. We are building the supply chain this country needs, and we are doing it by providing a domestic cost-competitive option for manufacturers while unlocking safer and cleaner production."
Hertha currently operates a 360-ton-per-year demonstration facility in Conroe, Texas, and is in the active supplier qualification process with major U.S. rare-earth magnet producers. When Hertha Chalyx breaks ground this year, these integrated facilities producing both steel and high-purity iron on a single site will give U.S. magnet and defense manufacturers a source they lack, making Hertha Metals as much a national security asset as an industrial one.
