One of the most important companies in mining is an artificial intelligence startup backed by some of the best technology investors ever. And now, they have a fresh half a billion dollars to take things to the next level.

‍What’s happening:‍

• KoBold Metals has raised $537M USD in a new Series C financing round
  
• The round was led by T Rowe Price
  

Why it matters:‍

• KoBold Metals has quickly become one of the most important technology companies in mining, as their artificial intelligence and machine learning software has become an accelerator for making new large scale discoveries of energy transition metals such as copper and cobalt
  
• Some of the most prominent venture capital funds in Silicon Valley also doubled down on their bet on KoBold Metals in this latest fundraising round, including a16z and Bill Gates founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures
  

By the numbers:‍

• KoBold Metals has now raised over $1B USD in venture capital funding since inception
  
• KoBold Metals now has invested into 70 different mining projects across 5 different continents
  

Going deeper:‍

• A significant amount of the new growth capital raised by KoBold Metals will go towards advancing their existing projects into operational mines as well as expanding into new regions such as Finland and Botswana for the first time
  
• Midnight Sun Metals (TSXV: MMA) and KoBold Metals previously sent waves through the public markets when they launched a partnership focused on identifying potential new copper deposits at Midnight Sun Mining’s flagship copper project located in Zambia

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