Europe’s climate transition is no longer only about emissions. It is increasingly about sovereignty. Industrial capacity, access to critical materials, and resilient supply chains are now national and continental priorities.
Dr Lilian Schwich, Co-Founder & Co-CEO cylib, joins Carmel Rafaeli, Founding Partner at The Table, and our very own Andreas Munk Holm, for a deep dive into one of the most overlooked gaps in Europe’s battery value chain: refining metallurgy. This is the step that turns black mass and battery scrap into separated, high-purity critical raw materials that gigafactories can actually use.
Lilian explains why Europe remains behind Asia in the battery ecosystem, where the real opportunity still sits, and what it takes to scale an industrial climate company at speed using the right capital stack of equity, grants, and debt alongside corporate partnerships that truly work.
The conversation closes on something rarely discussed openly in climate tech: building a company with your spouse while raising a child, and the operating choices and investor culture that make that possible.
This episode is part of Leaders Shaping a Resilient Planet, a series spotlighting founders who are rebuilding Europe’s industrial backbone with depth, discipline, and long-term conviction.
Capital Allocation Is Still Uneven
Before diving into cylib, Andreas frames the broader backdrop for climate in Europe.
Women-founded teams still receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital, with mixed-gender teams also underfunded relative to their contribution and potential. The imbalance is not marginal. It shapes which companies scale and which ecosystems get built.
That gap is precisely why Carmel Rafaeli founded The Table: to increase both the speed and size of capital flowing into women-led climate ventures, and to make access to that pipeline dramatically easier for investors and operators.
What The Table Is Building
Carmel describes The Table as a non-commercial co-investing community connecting syndicates, funds, family offices, and corporate venture capital around women-led climate deals from pre-Seed to Series A. The requirement is simple: at least one female founder must hold a meaningful and equitable stake.
In parallel, The Table is building a foundation that provides recoverable grants to match investment tickets. This is catalytic capital designed to accelerate underfunded innovation while helping close the gender funding gap.
The premise is structural. If capital allocation is uneven, outcomes will be too.
What cylib Actually Does
cylib is a battery recycling company focused on lithium-ion batteries. Its approach is end-to-end industrial processing across multiple inputs, including end-of-life packs from electric vehicles and trucks as well as production scrap from gigafactories.
The output is what Europe urgently needs: high-purity critical raw materials that can be reintegrated into advanced manufacturing, including new batteries.
Lilian’s core point is direct. Battery recycling is not a “nice to have.” It is a foundational capability for Europe’s industrial future.
The Missing Link in Europe’s Battery Value Chain
Lilian makes a sharp distinction about Europe’s current position.
Capacity is growing in earlier steps such as collection, mechanical preprocessing, and refurbishment. But Europe has a significant gap in refining metallurgy. That means separating lithium from cobalt and producing materials at purity levels high enough for reintegration into cell manufacturing.
Without this step, the loop remains open and gigafactories remain dependent on external supply chains.
In that sense, battery recycling is not just a climate story. It is a sovereignty story.
Is China Too Far Ahead?
A common investor sentiment is that batteries in Europe may be strategically important but not investable because Asia, particularly China, is far ahead.
Lilian does not deny the lead. She reframes the opportunity.
Europe’s industry is electrifying rapidly. Batteries are not only about electric vehicles. They are central to energy storage, data centers including AI infrastructure, and industrial and defence applications.
Her thesis is blunt. If Europe fails to build this value chain, European industry loses competitiveness. The cost is systemic.
Why Go End-to-End?
Carmel raises the question many investors ask. Why build the full stack instead of focusing on one step in the chain?
Lilian’s answer centres on speed and positioning. Ecosystem partnerships are being decided now. To be a reliable industrial partner, you must demonstrate a clear path to industrialisation. Scrap volumes are already massive, and Europe lacked players capable of converting that material into usable outputs at scale.
There was also a technical conviction. After studying the landscape, cylib believed that resource efficiency and full-material recovery were not being taken seriously enough. Going end-to-end was a strategic necessity.
Regulation as Tailwind
In discussions about European competitiveness, regulation is often framed as a constraint.
Lilian offers a different view. In raw materials and resilience, Europe’s regulatory posture can be an advantage. In an uneven global landscape, policy becomes a lever to invest in sovereignty, build industrial resilience, and accelerate critical infrastructure.
This is where climate policy and strategic autonomy converge.
The Capital Stack for Industrial Climate
One of the most practical parts of the episode focuses on funding.
Scaling hardware to full industrial operations using only equity does not make sense. cylib’s model relies on three pillars: early equity, strategic public grants, and debt as the asset base and revenue profile mature.
Grants in Europe can be meaningful, but they are complex. Timelines are long, and applying to the wrong call can drain momentum. cylib treated grant strategy as a high-intent project, including professional support to ensure the financial structure did not accidentally disqualify them.
For founders building industrial climate companies, this is not optional knowledge. It is blueprint-level strategy.
Corporate Partnerships Without Getting Burned
Corporate capital is another dimension of the stack.
Lilian shares how Porsche began with a technical collaboration and proof of concept focused on environmental footprint improvement and access to raw materials. Over time, that technical credibility evolved into a strategic venture relationship.
Her advice to founders is pragmatic. Start with the real pain point. Treat proof of concept as co-development, not quick revenue. Be willing to invest more than planned to make the solution real. Propose ideas that may initially be dismissed. And build patience into the relationship. Corporates may not move fast, but they start early.
Fundraising Strategy: Think Two Rounds Ahead
Carmel asks whether founders should think two or three rounds ahead before entering the market.
Lilian’s answer is yes, especially in hardware. The earlier you are precise about the scale you are building toward, the better positioned you will be. Series A in deep tech can be particularly difficult, with high capital needs and pre-profitability dynamics.
Relationships with later-stage investors must be built early. Strategy cannot be improvised.
The Human Operating System
The episode ends on something rarely discussed with this level of openness.
Lilian shares what it is like to build a company with her spouse. The advantages include rapid feedback loops, shared context, and high trust. There is no polite internal dance.
Then there is parenting. Lilian and Gideon bring their child to work daily and has a dedicated baby room, supported by a team and investors who understand that life and company-building coexist.
Carmel notes that the ecosystem is slowly becoming more open and realistic. Andreas adds that supporting founders through real life requires structural support, not just good intentions. If millions can be invested into companies, marginal resources can be invested to ensure founders and families remain stable.
Why This Series Exists
Leaders Shaping a Resilient Planet exists to spotlight founders who are rebuilding Europe’s industrial backbone with seriousness and depth.
These are not symbolic leaders or narrative-driven profiles. They are operators navigating regulation, industrial scale-up, capital intensity, and geopolitical complexity. They are building infrastructure that determines whether Europe remains competitive in a climate-constrained world.
Dr Lilian Schwich is one of those founders.
Scaling cylib means mastering metallurgy, regulation, capital strategy, and corporate alignment in parallel. It reflects a broader shift in climate tech toward sovereignty, resilience, and industrial execution.
Europe’s climate transition is increasingly a sovereignty transition. The founders shaping that shift deserve attention not because of headlines, but because of what they are building.
🎧 Listen on Apple or Spotify, and stay tuned for future episodes of Leaders Shaping a Resilient Planet as we continue conversations with the builders shaping a more resilient Europe.
