A Tesla Reunion in the Battery World
Redwood Materials, the Nevada-based battery-recycling and energy-storage company, has made a high-profile addition to its executive team: Deepak Ahuja, the former Chief Financial Officer of Tesla, is joining as its new CFO. The hire reunites Ahuja with Redwood's founder and CEO JB Straubel, who served as Tesla's Chief Technology Officer during the company's most transformative years.
The pairing is notable. Straubel and Ahuja worked side by side as Tesla scaled from a niche electric vehicle startup into one of the most valuable automakers on the planet. Now, they're back together — this time with their sights set on fixing one of the electric vehicle industry's thorniest problems: what happens to batteries when they die.
What Redwood Materials Actually Does
Founded in 2017, Redwood Materials operates at the critical and often overlooked end of the EV supply chain. The company collects spent lithium-ion batteries — from consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and industrial equipment — and breaks them down into their raw chemical components. Those materials are then refined and resold to battery manufacturers, closing the loop on what would otherwise become toxic electronic waste.
As the global EV market accelerates, the volume of end-of-life batteries is set to surge dramatically over the next decade. Redwood has positioned itself as a key player in ensuring that surge doesn't become an environmental catastrophe — and that the critical minerals locked inside those batteries (lithium, cobalt, nickel) stay in the domestic supply chain rather than being lost to landfill.
The company has already secured partnerships with major automakers and battery makers, and operates a large-scale facility in Nevada with expansion plans underway.
IPO? Not Yet
With a high-profile CFO hire typically comes speculation about a public offering — and the battery sector has seen plenty of IPO excitement in recent years, not all of it well-founded. But Ahuja was quick to temper expectations.
"It's too early" to talk about an IPO, the incoming CFO said, signalling that Redwood's immediate priorities lie in scaling operations and deepening its commercial relationships rather than navigating the complexity of going public.
That measured stance may actually reassure investors who watched a wave of EV-adjacent companies go public via SPAC mergers only to struggle under the scrutiny of quarterly earnings pressure before their business models had fully matured.
Why the Hire Matters
Ahuja's track record at Tesla is significant. He served two stints as the company's CFO, helping guide it through its 2010 IPO, the launch of the Model S, and the high-stakes years of the Model 3 production ramp — arguably the most important period in Tesla's history. His return from retirement to join Redwood is a clear signal that he sees serious long-term potential in what Straubel is building.
For the broader battery-recycling industry, the hire lends further credibility to a sector that has sometimes struggled to attract top-tier financial talent. With the energy transition accelerating and governments on both sides of the Atlantic pouring money into domestic battery supply chains, Redwood's moment may be arriving.
Whether an IPO eventually follows is a question for another day. For now, the company has the executive bench to build something lasting.
Source: TechCrunch
