Eleven words changed the way Amanda Hall thought about her career, and her budding startup: “Why are you doing this? It’s too big for you.”
That’s what the Summit Lithium Technologies founder and geophysicist says she was told eight years ago, when she first pitched the ambitious notion of extracting and refining the world’s lithium more sustainably. Now, she told a Startupfest crowd in Montréal on Thursday, those words have fuelled how she built a cleantech company that has raised over $100 million CAD and operates in four countries.
“Choose something so big and meaningful that it attracts others to join your journey.”
Founded in 2018, Calgary-based Summit Lithium (formerly known as Summit Nanotech) designed a patented system to isolate and extract lithium more sustainably and efficiently with nanotechnology. The metal is in high demand for its uses in rechargeable batteries.
“Every major car company in the world is making electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage and data centres are consuming lithium-ion batteries like crazy,” Hall said. “This is a huge opportunity.”
Hall’s keynote talk kicked off the third-annual edition of ImpactFest, a sub-event at Startupfest focused on investing in companies that create social and environmental good. Hosted by CIVIC, a national coalition of impact investors, this year’s event centred on how investing in business ventures that contribute to social equity and sustainability doesn’t have to come at the expense of good returns.
“Choose something so big and meaningful that it attracts others to join your journey,” Hall said.
Typically, Hall explained, lithium extraction involves drilling a well, bringing saltwater to the surface, and letting impurities evaporate and disperse to isolate the lithium—causing environmental damage. Instead, Summit Lithium uses particles that pull lithium out of the solution, leaving the rest underground.
RELATED: Summit Nanotech closes $36.5-million funding round to commercialize lithium extraction tech
The CEO said the company first went to mining sites in South American countries like Chile and Argentina to commercialize its tech, and partnered with local governments and large mining companies—even Albemarle Corporation, the world’s largest lithium extractor.
But following that success, Summit Lithium hit the “valley of death,” a common phrase used among startups to describe the difficult phase where emerging businesses struggle to scale. Hall said that, at the time, Summit was too big for venture capital but too small for private equity. “Imagine a canyon with huge, giant walls, and you’re sitting at the bottom, and the air is pressing down on you, and you’re exhausted, and there’s 100 people following you through this valley,” she said.
Getting through it required leaning on customers and partners, whose trust the company has earned and who are invested in its success. Cap table support was crucial, too. “The best investors will be shock absorbers, not shock enhancers,” Hall said. Despite those difficulties, Hall said this stage of startup building is also where competition falls away. In 2025, Summit Lithium made the Global Cleantech 100 list, which showcases private cleantech companies poised to make a substantial impact on the market in the next five to 10 years.
“My warning is this: if you haven’t built strong communication and trust with customers, partners, and your investors, you’ll be screwed when you get to the valley of death,” Hall said.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Madison McLauchlan for BetaKit.