RarEarth, an Italian deep tech company that manufactures new high-performance permanent magnets from recycled rare earths, announced that it has been awarded a €2.5 million grant by the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, together with a STEP (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) Seal.
The funding will accelerate RarEarth’s path to industrial-scale production of recycled-feedstock NdFeB magnets. RarEarth was the only company from Italy among the 38 start-ups and SMEs from 16 countries selected in the EIC’s June 2026 round, which allocated €90 million in grants and earmarked more than €200 million for potential follow-on investments.
Founded in 2023 and incubated in I3P - the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino - since 2024, RarEarth recovers rare earth magnets from electronic waste and reprocesses them into new, finished NdFeB magnets ready for industrial use, manufactured entirely in Europe. The company closes the loop: it turns end-of-life motors and electronics into magnets whose performance are comparable to the newly produced ones, while cutting CO2 emissions by 76%. RarEarth’s patented process is the core of a manufacturing model designed to scale to industrial volumes.
The market for neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets is projected to reach $68 billion by 2040, driven by rising global demand for electric vehicles, renewable energy and high-performance electronics. As industry shifts toward more sustainable and efficient solutions, locally produced magnets made from recycled materials are emerging as a key building block for circular manufacturing, a more resilient European supply chain and reducing the continent’s reliance on imported finished magnets, today sourced from outside Europe.
The EIC award assigned to the Italian start-up builds on a track record of national and international recognition. RarEarth won a €100,000 grant at the MOST Mobility Competition 2024 and received the “ENI Joule for Entrepreneurship” special mention at the 2024 ENI Awards, presented in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella. In July 2025 the company closed a €2.6 million funding round led by Primo Capital SGR and MITO Tech Ventures, an Article 9 SFDR venture capital fund managed by MITO Technology, with the participation of Corbites Fund, Vento Ventures and Axel carbon; in addition, RarEarth also secured €1.3 million in financing from Smart&Start Italia.
“We are proud to have been chosen by the EIC among the 38 European companies that stood out most for the innovation and strategic value of their products, services and business models", said Enrico Pizzi, Co-Founder & CEO of RarEarth. "For us, the STEP Seal is also the international recognition of what we are building: a process to reduce Europe’s dependency on imported rare earths and a locally produced alternative to magnets made from mined materials. We are already growing fast, also thanks to the constant support from I3P, and the EIC’s backing gives us even more momentum, visibility, access to investment and new partnerships across Europe as we move toward industrial-scale production.”
Giuseppe Scellato, President of I3P, commented: “We extend our warmest congratulations to the RarEarth team for this outstanding achievement, which is the result of the hard work carried out since the start-up’s inception and the courage it has shown in pursuing an ambitious strategic vision based on innovative technology. Securing not only the financial resources from the EIC Accelerator to continue its path of entrepreneurial growth, but also the prestigious European STEP Seal - which will open the door to further opportunities - confirms the project’s value on an international level. As an incubator, we will continue to support RarEarth’s development and guide the company as it takes its next steps toward establishing itself in the market.”
