Thank you.
Well, good afternoon, everyone, and good to see you're in good spirits.
Welcome to the grand opening of Pure Lithium's new Chicago headquarters.
We want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules.
Very grateful that you're here to celebrate what is a very serious occasion and extraordinary milestone at the same time for Pure Lithium.
Before we get started, allow me to acknowledge some of our special guests today,
including but not limited to Lisa Clemens Scott,
Senior Economic Advisor from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity,
joining us on behalf of Governor J.B. Pritzker today, State Senator LaCasia Collins.
Senator, thank you for being here.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, thank you very much, Mayor, for joining us.
And Miss Illinois, where are you?
There we are.
Thank you very much.
Nitsanya Fitch.
Community leaders, investors, directors, partners, friends, thank you all for being here today.
It is now my honor to introduce our first speaker and our host, Emily Bodewin,
Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Pure Lithium.
For those of you who do not know, Emily is a formidable inventor
with a total of 13 patents or patent applications to her name,
including, I would add, the two foundational patents that launched Pure Lithium
and two with Nobel laureate Stanley Whittingham,
who invented the lithium ion battery that is in all of your phones
that Pure Lithium will be replacing in the nearest future with its lithium metal battery.
Emily and her team hold a combined 128 patents and patent applications
and have won nearly as many accolades from their colleagues in the industry,
including the 2004 World Materials Forum Startup Coup de Cour Award,
the 2024 Best New Project Award,
and the 2025 Trailblazing Woman of the Year Award at the Fast Markets Voltus Awards,
the Global Energy Transition Prize for R&D Achievement,
and an Innovator in Energy Award at the 2025 Reuters Global Energy Transition Awards.
Because who takes home just one award and an event, right?
And that is not all.
On top of that, Emily and the team just racked up another honor,
the Not-So-Shabby American Chemical Society's 2025 Green Chemistry Challenge Award for Circularity,
just one of the most prestigious awards in chemistry
which Emily received at the National Academy of Sciences
along with the team in our nation's capital just last month.
And that's not all, and I hope you know that there's going to be a pop quiz on all of this,
so I hope you're taking notes.
Those who know Emily also know that she is not just an inventor
but a fearless business leader, and it takes to be both.
She has led this company through four and a half years of R&D in Boston,
conducted an extremely successful Series A round of funding,
and relocated the entire business here to the Windy City
so that she and the team could get down to the business of building the world's first commercially viable lithium metal battery
and bringing it to market.
So, please join me in welcoming, with a big round of applause, Emily Baldwin.
Ryan. Thank you everyone for coming to this incredible milestone of pure lithium. It's so
exciting to have you here to celebrate this day with myself and my team. So at the end of 2011,
I discovered lithium metal batteries and became intensely passionate about them and have been
working on them ever since. The battery was actually invented in 1977 by Stan Whittingham,
who won the Nobel Prize for the lithium ion battery that is in the phone that all of you are
holding. And in our lifetimes, there have only been two batteries commercialized to gigawatt hour
scale. One is lead acid that starts your car. The other one is lithium ion. Well, lithium metals
should have come first, but it didn't because lithium costs too much and there were problems
with the quality. And today we're going to make that battery happen. It's half the weight,
twice the capacity, and it's safer than the battery you're holding in your hands. And we can make it
without relying on China, which means that global hubs can bring this battery to market. And we can
truly displace lithium ion just like the vacuum tube displace a transistor and semiconductor
industry analogy. So we're really excited to be here. We can make our battery in two days,
not 587. And I'm just so thankful that we were able to make this move to Chicago. I want to
thank Governor Pritzker especially for prioritizing energy and energy transition and clean energy and
batteries. It's something that is economically viable too. Everyone needs a battery. So really
excited that he recognized that and has put some really really incredible
policies in place. I really want to thank Lisa Clemon Scott from the Department of
Economic Opportunity for helping structures grant. State Senator Collins
for championing us and promoting development about displacement and I'm
so thrilled to contribute to this and I want to thank Mayor Johnson. This city is
incredible. It is so well
run. The traffic lights
are sinking crosswalks, which is
I mean amazing. This city is
safe. This city is clean. I walked from
this laboratory to a restaurant
for dinner back to my house last night,
and the streets are light. There are people running.
They're crowded. I've never felt
safer, and I've lived in New York City for 20 years
and in Boston, so really excited
and proud to be able to bring my team here
to a place where it made economic sense.
Some very important people
convinced me to move to Chicago
Professor Shirley Meng from the University of Chicago,
who some of you may know.
She is formidable in our industry.
She's amazing.
And Brian and I had dinner with her for 15 minutes.
And she's brought us to this lab.
And we were basically sold on the benefits of moving here.
She left her entire family in California to move here.
And, of course, Samir Mayaker, who is, I've known for 15 years.
We were building the battery companies together.
And the entire team at Nanograph, including Francis Wang.
Thank you for the very warm welcome, the USPs, all of your equipment.
Really great to have such a welcome here.
We would not be here without Brandon Green and the entire CVRA team.
He really helped us, walked us through the process.
He connected us to the right people in the state to make this happen.
So Brandon, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I want to thank the lovely Sherry L. Howard for help getting our team moved here.
And a big, big thank you to Argonne National Laboratory's Dr. John Grimm, who I have worked with for over a decade.
And the entire team at Argonne, and especially John and Ed Berry, I can't really express the influence that that team has had on my career trajectory,
and ultimately the formation of pure lithium, which has been tremendous.
I'm very excited that we have two ongoing projects
with the lab now, one for recycling lithium metal
and one to scale up our vanadium cathode.
So huge thanks to you guys at our lab, thank you.
And now I want to thank our advisors.
Ralph Wise, who was my worst advisor ever,
who's kept us on line of sight on pause since the beginning.
Dr. Yuan Gao, a four-crunk battery expert,
he rolls up his hand, he's so involved with the team.
Really, we wouldn't have gotten 5,500 cycles
in a battery without the help of roughly one.
So thank you very much.
I also want to thank some of our newer advisors,
Dr. Rob Zeller from Optimal Carbon Ventures,
our largest investor right now.
Jay Whitaker and Ken Hoffman,
thank you for all of your help.
And now on to our investors and directors.
I want to thank our anchor investor, Robert Friedland.
Robert is just phenomenal, quite a personality,
and I've learned more about him for business
and managing a board with him on it for five years.
Robert gave us $10 million with no strings attached,
and he gave us the freedom to execute the technology and execute my business plan.
So very grateful to Robert.
I want to thank Oxy Low Carbon Ventures and our director, Derek Willis.
Incredible, decisive leadership on our board, and it's a time-consuming effort.
...to serve on a board, so we're really grateful to Ossie for leading our Series A with $15 million,
joining our board, and also giving us a science advisory member.
Our first investor is a man named Tom Plum, who couldn't be here today, but he gives a special shout-out.
Thanks to Bill Morin and all of our investors.
I want to thank our partners.
I want to thank Tal Schilfopper, a dear friend of mine for over 15 years,
who has grown a company in that time period that has over 100 large corporations
that use their systems for battery data and management.
Thank you, Tal, for everything you've done to help us.
Chris Dornbos, the entire team at E-Pure Lithium
and Camden are partners, St. Gobain,
and a special thanks to Kingston Metallurgy
who's helping us scale our tech,
and our entire team at Pure Lithium.
We would not be here without it.
Thank you, all of you, for trusting us to move here.
Thank you, Dr. Brian Schultz,
our head of VisDevon Technology.
We acquired his capital company.
Thank you for trusting us, Brian, and I really want to thank our VP of Operations, Amelie
Munt, who's been my right hand for three and a half years.
We would not be here without her.
Anything we need done, she gets done.
She is incredible at executing anything from our mobile company audit to financing to this
entire move.
So thank you, Amelie, and our first employee, Desi DeKova.
Amazing to have Desi on four of us still.
I also want to thank my family for their unwavering support and encouraging me to work 90 hours a week and supporting it.
And I'm so grateful to them because knowing that I have that support at home really makes a big difference in your life.
So I'm really, really grateful.
And we've achieved truly remarkable results here.
No one has ever gotten a lithium metal battery to cycle past a couple hundred cycles.
And we have now validated with a large Asian cell manufacturer over 1,000.
We've achieved over 5,500.
They're still cycling, but right now, we've got 1,000 that are validated, which is 10 times more than we can get.
So we're really excited.
We're going to do this in Chicago, and Chicago's not going to be the Windy City.
It's going to be the Windy Battery City.
So thank you so much for having us.
Thank you.
Thank you, Emily.
So as I mentioned earlier, we are very lucky to have some of our elected representatives with us today.
So let's kick it off, beginning with Lisa Clemens,
a senior economic advisor from the governor's office.
Thank you so much.
You know the governor would have been here if he could.
There was a real connection when he talked with you
and why our team really worked really hard on this deal with you.
I'm thrilled to be here today to celebrate Pure Lithium's new U.S. headquarters
and innovation lab here in Fulton Market,
a growing epicenter for technology companies at the cutting edge.
As the state's economic development agency,
it is DCEO's mission to increase economic growth and job opportunities
for Illinoisans across a range of industries.
Under our governor's leadership, Illinois has established itself as a premier destination for businesses to locate and expand.
And Pure Lithium's decision to relocate their operations from Boston to Chicago,
making a significant investment in bringing 50 new jobs to our region, is a true testament to that.
Even more important is a business's ability to succeed,
which is why DCEO's strategic and intentional approach to program design is meeting businesses where they are.
whether in startup mode, commercialization, or in the process of global takeover like Emily and her team.
Our Reimagining Energy in Vehicles in Illinois, or REV Illinois Act,
is essential to supporting clean tech companies like Pure Lithium
and ensuring that Illinois attracts the brightest minds to help us continue our trajectory toward 100% clean energy by 2050.
That's a goal codified in our state law.
REV is a program that has been made possible thanks to Governor Pritzker and state lawmakers
strengthening Illinois' economic development toolbox.
And Pure Lithium's investment here is one example of why these economic tools are important
and a demonstration of how strong public policy can lead to investments like the one we're
celebrating today.
We are committed to continuing this work in lockstep with Pure Lithium and other innovators
to achieve these collaborative goals.
I'd like to recognize some of my colleagues, Agnes and Renee, who worked on this deal,
and Katrina with Illinois Economic Development Corporation, always our partners in projects
like this.
And congratulations.
And allow me to, Governor, please, if you'd like to have a seat, Governor Masters, former
Bill Love.
If you want to have a seat over here, please.
Thank you very much.
I'm a member of the board of directors, so they'll appear with you.
and not at all upset the peerless
Tim has moved from Boston to Chicago.
Tim has moved from Boston to Chicago.
Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you very much, Lisa, for your remarks.
It is now my honor to introduce our next speaker,
State Senator LaCacia Collins.
LaCacia, thank you very much.
I'm so excited to be here today with you all to celebrate this moment.
I would like to thank our governor, J.B. Prisker, who I know would be here as well, for his leadership, for his vision, and my colleagues in the General Assembly, of course, for helping to create policy that make things like this possible.
I also want to acknowledge our mayor, I'm just joking, acknowledge our mayor, Brandon Johnson, for his leadership and partnership in this project as well. He doesn't think I smell enough, but I just wanted to know that when I talk, I smell.
But no, seriously, the 5th Senate District is a very beautiful district.
It's one of the best in the state of Illinois, I'd like to add,
because we have so many gyms throughout this district.
And the Fullerton Market is literally a tech hub for technology and companies
and corporate headquarters to come here.
So I'm so excited that Pearl Lithium chose the 5th Senate District,
the city of Chicago, to call this a place that's home for you.
Illinois, as you know, is leading in investments for clean energy,
which has become an attraction for manufacturers to come here,
looking to upskill for long term,
and investments in our state which brings jobs that will attract highly skilled professionals
here in the state of Illinois and, of course, in this great city, the city of Chicago.
Because of our infrastructure being so strong and filled with so many talented people,
So by moving your operations here, you're joining a legacy of companies in Illinois' manufacturing industry
that contribute to our clean energy ecosystem.
I can't talk right now.
These investments support goals of growing the clean energy production and manufacturing industries
as outlined in our Illinois economic growth plan.
This is a tremendous addition to our business landscape and a real foundation for growth
and security and for generations to come.
And so again, I would like to say thank you, Emily, for your vision.
Just to hear all of the awards for the hard work that you've been doing is so amazing to hear.
And you were one of the ones that you, so kudos to you.
But thank you all for all of those who were a part of making this possible.
And again, welcome.
I look forward to working with you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Senator.
Lakeisha Collins.
And thank you, by the way, for the shout-out for pure lithium-ion on the states.
I really appreciate him.
Well, last but not least, he has been patiently waiting
through all of the speeches today.
Our next speaker, the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson.
Thank you so much for the introduction.
And good afternoon, everyone.
Good afternoon.
We are grateful to have the former governor of Massachusetts
in the greatest frequency in the world, the city of Chicago.
Thank you, governor, for hanging out with us.
Thank you Senator Collins for your leadership and your commitment to working people and businesses across the state of Illinois.
And what can we say about you, Emily?
As we were listening to Senator Collins' point, to all of the accomplishments,
the only thing that I could think of was enrolling back in school to figure out how to boost my resume.
So I'm going to be enrolling back in school that hopefully one day my resume can come close to yours.
but truly, what a remarkable testament to your presence,
your talent, your conviction.
And not only is Emily the proud innovator
and the owner and operator and leader
of this incredible company, she is officially a Chicagoan.
To make it even better, she's a West Side.
This is the West Side, by the way.
So it's really an honor to join you all and celebrate this major investment in Chicago's clean energy manufacturing sector.
On behalf of the city, I do want to thank Pure Lithium for choosing the cause of Chicago's west side of your home.
Your investment here is deeply meaningful to our communities who will reap the benefits of 50 new job opportunities,
more than 49, because we already have the first employee, right?
So these job opportunities will help enhance
It's the city, but it also makes sure that we're advancing manufacturing in the tax sectors as a whole.
You know, this is an incredible example of what it means to partner with the state of Illinois,
the business community, and Governor Pritzker and his entire team have done yet another incredible job
of making sure that businesses that are able to relocate here as headquarters,
that they reflect the innovation but also the future of our economy.
and Pure Lithium's move here really reflects our city's strength
as a hub for innovation and advanced manufacturing.
With our city's world-class workforce, renowned universities,
and proximities to national labs,
I know that Pure Lithium will continue to thrive here.
Our city offers unmatched access to logistics, infrastructure,
top engineering talent, and a diverse business community
that allows companies to grow, to create more opportunities to scale production
and reach global markets by pure living.
And there's no time that's better than this time to celebrate this growth
than right now during Manufacturing Month.
Across the city this October, we are recognizing the innovators and creatives
who are powering Chicago's economy and building our bright future.
In fact, just last week, the city of Chicago held its annual Manufacturing Excellence Awards
to celebrate the companies who represent past, present, and future manufacturing in Chicago.
Now, Perlithium is a part of our city's legacy of manufacturing innovation and excellence.
Chicago is not only the best place in the nation to scale up clean energy and clean energy technology,
but we are a city that's deeply committed to sustainability and environmental justice.
Just this year, we secured 100% of our buildings being operated by renewable energy, including both of our airports.
We wholeheartedly embraced this opportunity to scale up a sustainable industry that will create good-paying jobs and expand opportunities across all the world.
And of course, we're thankful to have one of the most active developers in the country, Tramiel Crowe, partnering with this project.
Their ability to deliver on a tight timeline and a commitment to building in Chicago, including
new park space here in Fulton Market, will ensure our city continues to attract the best
companies in the country.
Finally, I want to say again congratulations to Pure Lithium, to the entire team.
This is an exciting move, and we welcome you in your new home.
Thank you again for investing in Chicago, our people, and our shared future.
And I certainly do look forward to spending more time on this floor
to just have an incredible view of the entire city.
You've established this commercially viable lithium metal battery right here in Illinois
and, of course, at the greatest frequency in the world, is in Chicago.
Thank you all, and God bless you.
Thank you, Mayor Johnson.
Thank you to all of our speakers.
Let's give them all another big round.
It's now time for a ribbon cut.
So if we can commence that over here.
I'll get it out.
Thank you.
Thank you.
If everybody moves here, that's like 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12.
I'm going to step.
Okay.
Yep, we can push the podium.
We can do that.
Yeah.
We can do that.
We can do that.
We can do that.
We can do that.
We can do that.
I'm going to try first, everyone's strong, good smiles.
All right, here on three.
One, two, three.
Look at this one.
All right, here next.
One, two, three.
Smile.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's it.
That's it.
That's it.
That's it.
That's it.
Wait, wait, wait.
One second.
Talk about it.
Talk about it.
White coat down.
Maybe I will miss it.
Thank you.
It's easier to think about everything.
Three, two, one.
I'm good?
Yeah.
All right.