Meet Eric Herrera & Jesse Evans, Founders of Maverick BioMetals
Invest in startups like Maverick BioMetals alongside Climate Capital here.
Founders: Eric Herrera, Jesse Evans
Motto: Expanding Metal Production with Biology
Year Founded: 2021
Stage: Seed
Location: San Antonio, TX
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Climate Capital: What made you want to solve this problem?
Eric: Metals like lithium, nickel, cobalt and REEs are essential as we move towards decarbonization, but extracting and refining those metals has a major environmental impact. Current extractive processes are energy intensive, relying heavily on fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas. These processes are not only bad for the environment, they’re also inefficient. Maverick is changing that.
Climate Capital: What are you building?
Eric: Our technology uses enzymes to chemically break down the crystal structure of ores and extract metals and nonmetals at near-ambient temperatures and conditions. Bioextraction is designed for the clean energy future, it uses little energy and yields high extraction rates. No more tailings in large piles of waste or hazardous chemicals.
Climate Capital: What is next?
Eric: Because our process doesn't target a specific metal but targets the mineral the metal is encased in, we can go after many other metals, mining wastes, and even shale. We're excited to see the scope of our tech and how it can have its largest impact.
Climate Capital: How do you foster growth and career development for your employees?
Eric: Continuous innovation. There are always new ideas to test, new experiments to run, and new markets to change.
Climate Capital: What are the key challenges as you scale your company?
Eric: Scaling the company comes down to field testing. Easier said than done when your work involves mines. We're expanding biotech from the lab to the board room and the mine sites in the US and Canada and getting mining partners comfortable with a whole new way to process their ores and extract value responsibly.
Climate Capital: What have you learned that you want to share with other founders?
Eric: Taking a step back and seeing a problem from an entirely new perspective has allowed us to find new ways to fix old problems. That is our motivation and what keeps us excited for what is next.
Climate Capital: How can the broader climate community help you on your mission?
Eric: Outside perspectives are essential for any new and exciting goal. We would love to talk to others in biotech, clean tech, ML, chemical engineering and similar fields.
