Lithosquare raises $25M to expand and break critical minerals bottleneck with AI-powered geology platform

Paris-based company deploys Geology AI and geologist-led intelligence to reduce exploration timelines  

• Over 1000 new mineral deposits must be discovered by 2040 to meet electrification and digital infrastructure demand, yet it still takes 7-15 years from exploration idea to deposit discovery, with geologists spending ≈80% of their time on data processing.
• Lithosquare's Geology AI platform, built by AI scientists and expert geologists, makes discovery and exploration processes 10× more efficient, compressing timelines from months to days.
• Lithosquare is already working with partners across the US, Europe, Africa and Latin America to support Western resilience, helping reduce dependency on a few actors   including China, which controls ≈50% of rare earths extraction.

Munich, 5th May 2026 – Lithosquare is building an AI-powered platform that will use deep geological expertise to radically amplify and accelerate the discovery of transition-critical minerals.

The firm raised  $25 million in new funding. The round was co-led by World Fund and Kindred Capital, with participation from Daphni, Omnes Capital and Ovni Capital. The funding will be used to accelerate the discovery and development of critical metals deposits at a time when existing supply chains cannot meet global demand.

By 2040, the supply gap for critical metals such as copper, lithium and nickel could reach $350bn annually. Demand for lithium, the backbone of EV batteries and grid storage, is projected to grow more than 400% by 2040, while copper demand is expected to rise by around 50%, driven by electrification, AI data centres and grid infrastructure.

Recycling alone cannot meet this demand, meaning more than 1,000 new mineral deposits must be discovered. However, mineral exploration today remains slow and highly manual, and sees very low success rates. It typically takes 7-15 years to progress from initial exploration to deposit discovery, with geologists spending up to 80% of their time on data processing and analysis.‍

Lithosquare’s platform automates and accelerates exploration workflows by combining foundational AI with science-based geological models of the subsurface. Unlike existing AI tools that apply pattern-recognition models to geological data, the platform leverages a deep understanding of metal deposit formation, enabling more accurate targeting and deposit development decision-making. By increasing exploration and discovery efficiency by up to 10x, Lithosquare reduces analysis timelines from months to days. The platform is carefully designed to work alongside geologists, augmenting their work so teams can focus on geological interpretation and discovery. This improves targeting precision, reduces unnecessary drilling and associated emissions, and enables faster development of new mineral supply.

Lithosquare is a clear example of Europe-born tech helping secure long-term Western resilience. Today, just a few countries provide the world with the vast majority of its critical metals. China controls ≈50% of rare earth elements extraction, for example, generating a strategic risk for Western countries. Demand for Lithosquare’s technology and capabilities is being driven by recent regulatory developments, including Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy and the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, which requires that >10% of annual consumption should be extracted domestically.

The company was founded in Paris in 2024 by mining engineer Aymeric Préveral-Etcheverry, with Simon Leclair joining as Founding COO shortly after. The founders are already working with mining companies across the US, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Now, they will use their new funding to grow their expert team, support continued platform development, and expand globally. 

Aymeric Préveral-Etcheverry, Lithosquare co-founder and CEO, said: “We spent years working in mineral exploration and watched the same bottleneck slow every project: too much time processing data, not enough time on actual geology and fieldwork. Lithosquare turbocharges geologists and exploration teams by bringing together deep geological science and AI to fundamentally rethink how mineral deposits are discovered, accelerate exploration, and support the energy transition at scale. We are excited to be partnering with our new investors to pave the way towards a circular energy system that no longer depends on fossil fuels.” 

Dr Nadine Geiser, Principal at World Fund, said: “The energy transition depends on faster and more efficient discovery of critical raw materials. Lithosquare is not solving a niche geology problem: it’s removing a supply constraint that affects every sector of the economy, from EV manufacturing to AI data centres. Aymeric and Simon are building the critical discovery infrastructure that the energy transition depends on, and we backed them to do it at scale. ”

Chrys Chrysanthou, General Partner at Kindred, said: “At Kindred we aim to find incredible mission-driven founders that have unfair insights into the opportunity they’re tackling and have crazy ambition to drive immense impact. Aymeric and the team have an abundance of all that. Relentless drive to innovate and bring step change into an industry that has such high demand on a global scale. The speed with which they’re executing, their innovation, their results oriented approach and their optimistic attitude is something that made us want to jump on the journey with them. This is day one still and I’m sure they’ll move the industry forward in a positive way.”

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About Lithosquare
Lithosquare radically speeds up mineral exploration by combining foundational AI, geological expertise, and real-world data. The Paris-based company, founded in 2024 by mining engineers, geologists and serial entrepreneurs, accelerates the discovery of critical minerals for the energy transition. Lithosquare helps exploration companies generate more targets, discover deposits faster, and increase certainty about where to drill. The company increases value for partners while solving a critical bottleneck: the discovery of critical new mineral deposits essential to delivering electrification and developing next-gen digital infrastructure.

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About Kindred‍

Kindred Capital is an early-stage venture capital investor, backing the most ambitious deeptech founders across the European ecosystem.  Founded in 2015, Kindred has backed some of the most audacious companies at the intersection of AI, life science, robotics, and the compute stack, including Paddle, LabGenius, Cradle, RobCo, Dexory, Fractile, and Latent Labs, amongst others.  Our team is made up of former founders and operators, who have pioneered a new model we call Equitable Venture, in which we share fund carry with every entrepreneur the firm invests in.  This unique model creates a community of the most ambitious founders who are all co-owners of the fund, and have a vested interest in one another's success. For more information, please visit www.kindredcapital.vc