The rare earth magnet business is usually invisible until it breaks. Motors spin. Servers cool. Defense systems hum. Nobody asks where the force comes from until the force disappears. Noveon...
The rare earth magnet business is usually invisible until it breaks. Motors spin. Servers cool. Defense systems hum. Nobody asks where the force comes from until the force disappears. Noveon Magnetics, Inc. exists because the United States learned that lesson the hard way, then decided it was done outsourcing gravity. From a 145,000 square foot facility in San Marcos, Texas, Noveon is the only operational manufacturer of sintered neodymium iron boron permanent magnets in the country, and the first to reshore full scale production in 20+ years. This is not nostalgia manufacturing. This is pressure tested infrastructure.
Noveon Magnetics closed a $215M Series C. $200M came from One Investment Management, led by Rajeev Misra, with the balance from existing investors. Secondary liquidity for early believers, primary capital for expansion, and two incoming board seats signal something more than a growth round. This is a balance sheet built for endurance. One Investment Management does not show up to admire machinery. It shows up to scale leverage where timing matters.
The story started long before Texas. In 2012, Scott Dunn and Peter Afiuny met Dr. Miha Zakotnik at a conference in Kawasaki, Japan. They moved to Shenyang, China, rented an apartment, and learned magnet manufacturing inside an idle factory at night. That is not romance. That is obsession. Catalina Oana Tudor later wired the digital backbone that would make the operation defensible. They came home with patents, scar tissue, and a refusal to be dependent.
Today Noveon runs EcoFlux technology and a Magnet to Magnet recycling process that turns end of life material into high performance magnets without chemical detours. The plant is rated for 2,000 tons annually and expanding. Revenue grew from roughly $10M in 2023 to about $19M in 2024, with line of sight to $250M at full utilization. The magnets hold at heat, use fewer heavy rare earths, and pass DFARS requirements that matter when defense contracts tighten.
Customers already did the diligence. General Motors signed a multi year supply agreement. ABB locked in long term supply for industrial motors and data center cooling. Nidec committed to a five year off take north of 1K tons. Lynas Rare Earths and Solvay secured feedstock. LG Electronics validated closed loop recycling. Kangwon Energy lined up a 2K ton facility in South Korea for 2027. This is choreography, not coincidence.
Scott Dunn runs the floor. Peter Afiuny sells the vision without fiction. Dr. Miha Zakotnik engineers the edge. Viji Subramanyam keeps the numbers honest. Hugo Haussner scales the factory. Catalina Oana Tudor makes the systems speak. The Series C expands capacity and leverage, but the real force is momentum. When gravity shifts, everything else moves.