As the demand for electric cars and sustainable energy rises, the demand for magnets are rising with it.
Minneapolis-based Niron Magnetics is working to source high-performance magnets that are made from recycled materials and free of rare earth metals.
Niron had the 12th-largest venture capital round for a Twin Cities company in 2021, hauling in $23 million last July with investments from Volvo Cars Tech Fund and Volta Energy Technologies.
The funds were used to invest in a pilot production facility in Northeast Minneapolis that will allow it to scale its state-of-the-art technology.
The Business Journal talked with Niron’s CEO Andy Blackburn to hear how the company has grown in the past year and what’s next. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How have you been able to build momentum around the company?
Timing is everything. I would say the markets have done us an immense favor. The price of rare materials has tripled or quadrupled, depending on the element, over the past two or three years. If you look at the global 500 industrial companies, most of those use magnets in some way. We're trying to pick markets where the application will be best suited for our first-generation material. But we have a whole series of generations of material with increasingly sophisticated manufacturing techniques and price performance.
Why is Niron’s technology needed right now?
We're increasingly seeing customers who have an absolute requirement to have sustainable materials. Mining rare earth metals is actually pretty nasty. We feel like we solve a lot of those kinds of problems.
What advantages does being in Minnesota give you?
The University of Minnesota has got a really strong material science department, and they have a magnetic materials capability. We've been able to get people out of that. But there's also a fair amount of complementary industries here. They all understand magnetic materials up and down. Being able to source people locally and retain them has been a great strength of ours.
How do you balance scaling the company without growing too fast?
We thought about it a lot, because you can hurt yourself if you try and do too much, too fast. We're trying to pace things and set expectations with folks. We've got a whole sequence in mind. And so far, it has not been overwhelming.
