Startup of the Month: Endolith in Arvada raises $16.5 million to boost copper extraction

This column appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of ColoradoBiz titled “Startup of the Month: Endolith.”

• Company: Endolith, Arvada
• www.endolithmining.com
• Founded: 2022
• Endolith Mining

With a PhD in astrobiology, Endolith CEO Liz Dennett is passionate about microbes. “They’re the Earth’s oldest miners,” she says. “There are more microbes than anything else on the planet, and these little, tiny machines can catalyze massive reactions.”

Houston-based Cemvita spun Endolith off as a standalone business in 2022. The company now has roughly 20 employees in labs in Arvada and Westminster.

The name is a good proxy for the nascent company’s culture, says Dennett. “Endoliths are bacteria and microbes that live inside of rocks. They are some of the oldest microbes in the oldest lifeforms on the planet. They’ve been around for billions of years. They’ve survived things like the late heavy bombardment, which is when a bunch of meteorites hit the planet and pretty much liquefied the surface.”

In a Nutshell

Endolith has developed a new process to extract copper from ore using naturally occurring microbes. “Between now and 2050, the world needs more copper,” says Dennett. “Data centers need copper, electric cars and copper. Everyone needs copper, and there’s no good way to get it. The ways that we’re using now are really environmentally damaging.”

The status quo involves spraying sulfuric acid onto piles of copper ore to create ponds with dissolved copper, which is collected via electroplating, whereas Endolith’s process uses a pair of cargo containers to house the microbe nursery and computing power.

“Endolith helps mining companies get more copper out of the mines they have. We use biology and data instead of more chemicals or new construction,” says Dennett. “In the lab, we are seeing 30% to 90% additional copper in real-world simulated conditions. In the field, we are conservatively targeting 10%.

That’s a big number, she adds. “It is a massive amount that can significantly close these gaps that we have in terms of where new copper is coming from.”

Endolith leverages technology to help guide the process, she adds. “We have a really good cloud data architecture. AI is just the magic sprinkle sauce that really helps take good data and turn it into something actionable,” says Dennett. “It’s improving on the existing processes and designed to be fully plug and play.”

The Market

Endolith has already attracted the interest of the world’s copper giants. “We’ve been fortunate enough to work with a bunch of tier-one mining companies, the BHPs, the Rio Tintos, so that we are able to not just have this great idea, but really bring it to market very quickly,” says Dennett.

Copper is just the first play: Endolith is already eyeing lithium and nickel. “The challenge of being at a startup, though, is there are so many things you can do and so few things that you can do very well . . . so first copper, then lithium and then some other key minerals,” says Dennett.

Financing

After raising a $5.3 million seed round in 2023, Endolith closed on a $16.5 million Series A led by Baltimore-based Squadra Ventures in late 2025.

Denver Ventures also participated in Series A. Principal and Head of Diligence Blair Simpson says Dennett’s communication skills stood out to him when he first met her in early 2025. “I was struck by how she could distill such a complex technology and industry into things that anyone in the audience could really grab on to,” he says.

“They’re audacious in their technical ambition, but laser-focused on pragmatic execution and commercial adoption,” adds Simpson. “They’re enabling a new domestic supply chain for critical minerals that are really important to economic and national security, and they’re doing it from our backyard here in Colorado.”

On a potential Series B, Dennett says, “You get so much scar tissue from fundraising. It’s the hardest thing I do as a founder.”