Startups

JB Straubel, Redwood Materials founder and Tesla board member, is headed to TC Disrupt 2023

Comment

In the world of electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy systems, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone more experienced than JB Straubel.

We’re excited to welcome Straubel, founder and CEO of Redwood Materials — and Tesla’s co-founder, former CTO and newest board member — to the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which runs September 19–21 in San Francisco.

Originally described as a battery recycling startup, Straubel’s company has a more ambitious plan. Redwood does recycle battery cell components and sells them back to manufacturers, but it also produces anode and cathode components for lithium-ion batteries — and building a sustainable, closed-loop domestic supply chain to fuel electric vehicles. The company scored a big win earlier this year, landing a conditional commitment for a $2 billion loan from the Department of Energy as part of the Biden administration’s bid to build up a supply chain for EVs in the United States.

Responsible for some of Tesla’s most important technology, notably around batteries, Straubel returned to the company last May after shareholders elected him to its board of directors.

Don’t miss what’s sure to be an important conversation on the future of sustainable electric vehicles.

JB Straubel: Redwood Materials founder and CEO; Tesla co-founder and CTO

Prior to founding Redwood Materials, JB Straubel was a co-founder of Tesla, where he spent 15 years as chief technology officer and built one of the best engineering teams in the world. Among many areas, he led cell design, supply chain and the first Gigafactory concept through the production ramp of the Tesla Model 3.

Straubel played a direct role in both R&D, team building and operational expansion from prototype cars through to mass production and GWh-scale. He received his MS in engineering and a BS in energy systems engineering from Stanford University.

He left Tesla in 2019 to focus on Redwood Materials. But now he’s back at the U.S. automaker as a board member.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 takes place in San Francisco on September 19–21. You can save up to $600, but the deadline is August 11 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Hurry and buy your Disrupt pass today!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

More TechCrunch

Struggling EV startup Fisker has laid off hundreds of employees in a bid to stay alive, as it continues to search for funding, a buyout or prepare for bankruptcy. Workers…

Fisker cuts hundreds of workers in bid to keep EV startup alive

Chinese EV manufacturers face a new challenge in their pursuit of U.S. customers: a new House bill that would limit or ban the introduction of their connected vehicles. The bill,…

Chinese EV makers, and their connected vehicles, targeted by new House bill

With the release of iOS 18 later this year, Apple may again borrow ideas third-party apps. This time it’s Arc that could be among those affected.

Is Apple planning to ‘sherlock’ Arc?

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will be in San Francisco on October 28–30, and we’re already excited! This is the startup world’s main event, and it’s where you’ll find the knowledge, tools…

Meet Visa, Mercury, Artisan, Golub Capital and more at TC Disrupt 2024

Featured Article

The women in AI making a difference

As a part of a multi-part series, TechCrunch is highlighting women innovators — from academics to policymakers —in the field of AI.

3 hours ago
The women in AI making a difference

Ifeel is being offered as part of an employer’s or insurance provider’s healthcare coverage.

Mental health insurance platform ifeel raises a $20 million Series B

Instead of opening the user’s actual browser or a WebView, Custom Tabs let users remain in their app while browsing.

Google Chrome becomes a ‘picture-in-picture’ app

Sanil Chawla remembers the meetings he had with countless artists in college. Those creatives were looking for one thing: sustainable economic infrastructure that could help them scale rather than drown…

Creator fintech Slingshot raises $2.2M

A startup called Firefly that’s tackling the thorny and growing issue of cloud asset management with an “infrastructure as code” solution has raised $23 million in funding. That comes on…

Firefly forges on after co-founder murdered by Hamas

Mistral, the French AI startup backed by Microsoft and valued at $6 billion, has released its first generative AI model for coding, dubbed Codestral. Like other code-generating models, Codestral is…

Mistral releases Codestral, its first generative AI model for code

Pinterest announced today that it is evolving its Creator Inclusion Fund to now be called the Pinterest Inclusion Fund. Pinterest teamed up with Shopify’s Build Black and Build Native programs…

Pinterest expands its Creator Fund to allow founders

Cadillac may seem a bit too traditional to hang its driving cap on EVs. And yet, that hasn’t stopped the GM brand from rolling out — or at least showing…

Cadillac’s new Optiq EV is designed to hook young hipsters

Alex Taub, a longtime founder with multiple exits under his belt, believes it’s time to disrupt the meme industry. “I have this big thesis that meme tech is going to…

This founder says meme tech is the next big thing

Lux, the startup behind popular pro photography app Halide and others, is venturing into video with its latest app launch. On Wednesday, the company announced Kino, a new video capture app…

Kino is a new iPhone app for videographers from the makers of Halide

DevOps startup Harness has shown itself to be an ambitious company, building a broad platform of services while also dabbling in M&A when it made sense to fill in functionality.…

Harness snags Split.io as it goes all in on feature flags and experiments

Microsoft’s Copilot, a generative AI-powered tool that can generate text as well as answer specific questions, is now available as an in-app chatbot on Telegram, the instant messaging app.  Currently…

Microsoft’s Copilot is now on Telegram

HBO’s new documentary, “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” tells a story that many of us know about: how MoviePass, the subscription-based movie ticketing startup, was a catastrophic failure. After a series of mishaps…

MoviePass co-founders speak their truth in HBO’s new documentary 

The watch features a variety of different 3D games, unlocking more play time the more kids move.

Fitbit’s new kid smartwatch is a little Wiimote, a little Tamagotchi

In the video, a crowd is roaring at a packed summer music festival. As a beat starts playing over the speakers, the performer finally walks onstage: It’s the Joker. Clad…

Discord has become an unlikely center for the generative AI boom

After the Wirecard scandal, Germany’s financial regulator BaFin started to look more closely at young fintech startups that wanted to grow at a rapid pace — it’s better to be…

Germany’s financial regulator ends anti-money laundering cap on N26 signups after $10M fine

Among other things, this includes the ability to trace code from source to binary packages across both platforms, single sign-on support and unified project structures.

JFrog and GitHub team up to closely integrate their source code and binary platforms

The company’s public fund disbursement and e-commerce platform makes accepting school tuition and enabling educational enrichment more accessible. 

Tech startup Odyssey goes on journey to help states implement school choice programs

A new startup called Kinnect aims to help people privately save generational memories, traditions, recipes and more. The company’s app, launched this month, lets people create invite-only spaces where they…

Kinnect’s new app aims to help families record and store generational memories

Spotify has hiked its premium subscription in France by an eye-watering €0.13, in response to a new music-streaming tax.

Spotify hikes subscription price in France by 1.2% to match new music-streaming tax

The European Union has taken the wraps off the structure of the new AI Office, the ecosystem-building and oversight body that’s being established under the bloc’s AI Act. The risk-based…

With the EU AI Act incoming this summer, the bloc lays out its plan for AI governance

Solutions by Text, a company that gives people a way to pay their bills and apply for loans via text messaging, has secured $110 million in new growth funding. Edison…

Bootstrapped for over a decade, this Dallas company just secured $110M to help people pay bills by text

Owners of small- and medium-sized businesses check their bank balances daily to make financial decisions. But it’s entrepreneur Yoseph West’s assertion that there’s typically information and functions missing from bank…

Relay raises $32.2 million to help smaller businesses manage their cash flow

When other firms were investing and raising eye-popping sums, Clean Energy Ventures took a different approach. It appears to be paying off.

How Clean Energy Ventures avoided the pandemic bubble and raised a $305M fund

PwC, the management consulting giant, will become OpenAI’s biggest customer to date, covering 100,000 users.

OpenAI signs 100K PwC workers to ChatGPT’s enterprise tier as PwC becomes its first resale partner

Tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, the clock is ticking! With just 72 hours remaining until the early-bird ticket deadline for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, now is the time to secure your spot…

72 hours left of the Disrupt early-bird sale