🌎 Welcome back to the CleanTechies PodLetter, founder edition.
Today, we are talking to Vivas Kumar from Mitra Chem
In today’s conversation, we discuss…
How iron-based materials have a more sustainable and reliable future
What Vivas learned from negotiations at Tesla
How AI is 10x’ing their production process
& More. Enjoy today’s episode, and let us know your thoughts in the comments
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The Guest: Vivas Kumar
Vivas Kumar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mitra Chem, the first lithium-ion battery materials manufacturer focused on shortening the lab-to-production timeline by over 90%, addressing the largest barrier to innovation: R&D and scale-up speed.
Previously, Vivas was a senior manager in Tesla's Battery Team, where he was the lead commercial negotiator for strategic contracts representing billions of dollars in aggregate multi-year spend along the battery materials supply chain (the company's largest BOM category). Throughout his career, he has conducted commercial negotiations and handled partnerships with executive and senior government counterparties in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
Vivas earned degrees in engineering at Rice University, and an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is still actively involved at Rice University via mentoring students and, formerly through Board participation at the Rice Engineering Alumni and Association of Rice Alumni.
The Startup: Mitra Chem
Iron-based Cathodes, Onshoring, AI, Production
One-liner: the first lithium-ion battery materials product company focused on shortening the lab-to-production timeline by over 90%, addressing the largest barrier to innovation: R&D and scale-up speed
Mitra Chem is a company focused on 3 problems:
Shifting the Western electric vehicle and energy storage industries' battery portfolio towards better, safer, cheaper iron-based battery cathodes
Building production capacity in the USA to offset production asset overconcentration in China
Accelerating by >90% the lab-to-market timeline for a portfolio of battery materials through a proprietary machine learning advantage
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📝 Show Notes:
Topics
04:18 Starting as an Entrepreneur
06:41 Near-Shoring
10:18 Transitioning to Iron-Based Materials
11:00 Trends and Challenges with Nickel, Cobalt, and Lithium
14:49 Working at Benchmark's Mineral Intelligence Group
24:50 Financing and Business Models in Climate Solutions
27:32 Adapting Technology for Local Context
31:31 Shifting from Innovation to Supply Chain
35:13 Integration of AI and Automation in Production
41:41 Longevity and Outlasting Competition
44:08 Reducing Organizational Costs
43:21 Finding the Right People
45:23 The Importance of Curiosity and Motivation
47:54 Takeaways
Links
This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.
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Here’s the thing: Somil and I both have day jobs, so if you’re in the helping mood, we both have an ask for you today.
Somil: I’m currently seeking to connect with founders in the built environment space for a project I’m working on. If you’re in that space, schedule a chat here!
Silas: As many of you know, my day job is solving people’s hiring headaches in climate - do you have a hiring headache? Well, let me be your Advil. (booking here)
🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in, and see you all next episode!
#172 AI x Production, Battery Technology, Learning from Tesla, & More w/ Vivas Kumar (Mitra Chem)