Lilac Solutions

Lilac Solutions is a pioneering lithium extraction technology company founded in 2016 that has developed a revolutionary ion exchange process to extract lithium from brine resources. Based in Oakland, California, the company was born from founder Dave Snydacker's PhD research at Northwestern University, where he identified breakthrough materials that could efficiently extract lithium while addressing the environmental challenges of traditional evaporation pond methods.

The company's patented ion exchange technology uses ceramic beads coated with proprietary nano-materials to extract lithium directly from brine with 70-98% efficiency, depending on brine quality. This approach uses exponentially less land and water compared to traditional methods—extracting as much lithium from a one-acre system as conventional methods would from a 10,000-acre evaporation pond facility. Lilac's technology also reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 80% relative to current brine-extraction methods.

With over $318 million in total funding from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, T. Rowe Price, and Presidio Ventures, Lilac Solutions has emerged as a leader in direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology. The company achieved a major milestone in 2024 with a $145 million Series C round, demonstrating strong investor confidence in its commercial-ready technology. Lilac's fifth-generation technology, unveiled in 2025, delivers 20x higher lithium production rates and can complete up to 10,000 cycles before replacement—orders of magnitude better than competing technologies.

Under the leadership of CEO Raef Sully (formerly CEO of Nutrien's $10 billion business unit), who took over from founder Dave Snydacker in 2024, Lilac is scaling its operations globally. The company operates key projects including the Kachi project in Argentina (with Lake Resources), the Great Salt Lake project in Utah (targeting 3,000 tonnes per year by 2026), and the Neptune project in Germany. Lilac's manufacturing facility in Fernley, Nevada produces the ion exchange beads needed for commercial deployment, supporting the development of a vertically integrated domestic lithium supply chain critical for the electric vehicle revolution.