From waste tires to battery innovation: T-Phite’s deep-tech bet from LatAm 🔋♻️
Most conversations about batteries focus on gigafactories, EVs, and raw materials — but there’s a massive story sitting in the background: what we throw away and who controls the supply chain.
In our latest Startup Sounds episode, we talk with Bernadita Díaz, founder & CEO of T-Phite, a deep-tech startup that turns waste tires into a hard-carbon additive for batteries, aiming for zero-waste, fully traceable recycling.
Bernadita shares:
- How she went from studying mechanics to co-developing a new material out of tires with scientists in Germany and Chile
- Why traceability in recycling is essential — and how producer-responsibility laws are changing the game
- How T-Phite’s material boosts anode performance as an additive, instead of 100% replacement
- The role of geopolitics, with China controlling much of the graphite supply, and why alternative carbon sources matter
- What it’s like to build deep tech from Latin America — dealing with skepticism, leveraging global labs, and betting on regional talent
We also dive into the human side: the frustration, the “99% pain / 1% glory” reality of deep tech, and why she sees founder communities and programs as her “intellectual vacations” that keep her going.
🎧 New episode with Bernadita Díaz (T-Phite)
#StartupSounds #TPhite #DeepTech #BatteryTech #Recycling #Traceability #Sustainability #LatAmStartups #Founders #LatAm
🎥Watch it now with the link below.
🎧 Cant watch? Listen it now on Spotify!
