Dr. Nalin Kumar, co-founder, CTO and Board Member, Among the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs at 2022 Builders and Innovators Summit

FORT WAYNE, IN – October 12, 2022 – Sortera Alloys, Inc., an innovative industrial scrap metal sorting and recycling company powered by artificial intelligence, data analytics, and advanced sensors, today announced that the company’s co-founder, CTO and Board Member, Dr. Nalin Kumar has been recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs of 2022 at its Builders and Innovators Summit in Healdsburg, California.

Goldman Sachs selected Dr. Kumar from multiple industries to be honored at the two-day event. Dr. Kumar has more than 30 years of entrepreneurial and hi-tech start up experience, holding 75 US patents. Dr. Kumar would be considered a serial entrepreneur with multiple high technology start-ups during his career.

Dr. Kumar’s innovations is the fundamental foundation of Sortera’s technology, which sorts, captures, and recycles high-quality aluminum from existing streams of mixed alloy scrap that are typically shipped abroad for processing or downgraded into lower-quality secondary materials.  Additionally, this sorting process enables aluminum manufactures to use roughly 5% of the energy required to manufacture aluminum from virgin material, enabling customers to reduce their CO₂ footprint and pursue sustainability and circular production goals. The resulting aluminum scrap created by Sortera’s sorting process is recirculated back into the manufacturing industry to be used in high-value applications, such as automotive cast and flat-rolled products and building, construction, and aerospace extrusions,” said Michael Siemer, CEO, Sortera Alloys.

“We’re delighted to recognize Dr. Nalin Kumar as one of the most exceptional entrepreneurs of 2022,” said David M. Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. “They have made extraordinary contributions to a wide range of fields, and all of us are looking forward to meeting with these innovative thinkers.”

In addition to honoring the most exceptional entrepreneurs, the Summit consists of general sessions and clinics led by seasoned entrepreneurs, academics and business leaders as well as resident scholars.

Dr. Nalin Kumar is a celebrated inventor with 75 US patents and a serial entrepreneur with multiple high technology start-ups over the last 30 years. Dr. Kumar obtained his M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. in microelectronics from Drexel University in 1985 and 1988 respectively. His areas of expertise include advanced materials, devices, equipment and their manufacturing, in particular, metal sorting systems, vacuum systems, x-ray tubes and instrumentation, and wide bandgap semiconductors including diamond cold cathodes. Dr. Kumar has published more than 30 technical papers, has 66 US patents and another 10 patents pending in various aspects of electronics.

Prior to co-founding Sortera, he led the ARPA-E funded aluminum recycling project at UHV as the principal investigator, and was instrumental in the development of the highly successful XRF/AI based metal recycling technology. In 1994, he co-founded UHV Technologies (aka nanoRANCH) and has led it as its President for the last 25 years. Previously, he worked on the development of diamond cold cathodes for flat panel displays. Dr. Kumar’s work on diamond field emitters, started in 1989 at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), Austin, Texas, led to the first and some of the most fundamental patents in this field. He led a large team for diamond cold cathode field emission display research and development effort. In particular, his inventions in the field of nano-crystalline diamond field emission cathodes led to the launching of a publicly traded spin-off company called SI Technology, Inc. He was also the PI for the $7.3 million diamond cold cathode-based display development project funded by ATP of the Department of Commerce, and the $1.0 million diamond material development program funded by DARPA.

Recently, Sortera announced that it will locate to a new facility in Markle, Indiana, a significant milestone for the company has it seeks to scale its operations and capture the significant opportunity in the massive portion of the 4 billion lbs. of scrap alloy that is currently being sent overseas.  This new facility will allow the company to fulfill the increased demand for high-quality recycled alloys in the domestic market, specifically with automotive customers.

The new facility news follows the announcement by Sortera in July 2022 of having raised $10M in funding to advance end-of-life recycling for automotive metals. The funding round was led by Assembly Ventures with additional funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Novelis, Inc. In addition to the recent funding round, Sortera announced a commercial agreement with Novelis Corporation that enables Sortera to deliver high-quality aluminum feedstock directly to Novelis to be reused for automotive manufacturing components.