Mining Tech Startup Landscape 2026 (Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research))

Summary

• Funding concentration is high, with five startups holding 44% ($2.8B) of total disclosed capital, while US startups hold 71% of the global total.p.7
• 12 startups based in the San Francisco Bay Area raised $2.1B, compared to $80M combined across 17 startups in traditional mining capitals Santiago and Perth.p.10
• Operations software and sensing is the largest category with 59 startups (35%), but attracted only 6% of total disclosed funding.p.11
• Mining corporates are the most active venture investors in the sector, led by Rio Tinto with 23 startup investments and BHP Ventures with 17.p.12
• Latin America accounts for 17% of mapped startups (29 startups) but receives just 0.9% ($60M) of global disclosed startup funding.p.13

Key insights

1. Five top-funded startups—KoBold Metals, Boston Metal, Mariana Minerals, ReElement Technologies, and Lilac Solutions—account for $2.8B of the sector's capital.p.7
2. The global copper market faces a projected 10 million tonne annual supply gap by 2040, as demand reaches 42 million tonnes against 32 million tonnes of supply and recycling.p.3
3. Average lead times from discovery to production for new mines reached 17.9 yrs in the 2020–2023 period.p.4
4. Processing and refining startups attracted the single largest share of funding at 37% across 43 companies.p.11
5. No single financial VC firm has backed more than 8 startups on the landscape map, leaving mining corporates as the leading venture backers.p.12
6. Chilean mining tech startups are predominantly self-funded, with 87% relying on organic cash flow and only 6% receiving venture capital funding.p.13
7. All 8 African startups identified on the map operate without disclosed funding round sizes in open capital databases.p.15