Raffaele Nacchiero is the Co-Founder and CEO of AraBat, an Italian cleantech startup pioneering sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling using agricultural waste such as orange peels to recover critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

Raffaele earned a Laurea Magistrale in Management Engineering from Politecnico di Bari and pursued a PhD in Mechanical and Management Engineering there, while also co-founding Associazione NemicoRe, a cultural sustainability organization.

Recognized on the Forbes Italia Top 100 Under 30 list in 2024, Raffaele conceived AraBat's core innovation during the pandemic after identifying the global crisis of end-of-life battery waste and the untapped potential of Apulia's abundant agri-food byproducts.

Under Raffaele's leadership, AraBat was selected as a finalist at the prestigious Green Alley Award 2024 out of over 330 European startups, and has attracted interest from the European Recycling Platform as a strategic supply partner.

AraBat has raised over $540K in grant funding, is actively closing a $2M investment round, and is advancing joint venture agreements for spoke and hub pilot plant construction across Italy and Canada.