I have been giving this some thought over the last 24 hours as initially it didn't make sense to me but when you think of the scale that's involved their request for more funds is a logical one.
If they are negotiating for decent sized contracts, let us say 100 tonnes plus then you need to make sure you have your costs right and for this sort of business a significant cost is your feedstock. Having your costs properly set out is especially important for a start-up where there is no history of cashflow, (ie. ASM). The world currently is very uncertain and this extends to commodity prices. So, how the hell can they negotiate 3, 6, 12 month supply contracts without locking in feedstock costs? This current capital raise will give them 30 odd million to then go to market and buy a decent chunk of feedstock, thereby locking in costs. Once that is done then you can negotiate with customers for decent sized longer term contracts.... otherwise they will just be forced to diddle about with small crappy contracts.
Without knowing the ins and outs of their feedstock contracts, there could also be the potential to sharpen the pencil for bigger purchases? (This is just speculation on my part). Scale is everything with these sorts of businesses.
It's all very well as a company stating you want to produce 600 - 5,200 tonnes a year, but you better make what you are doing is profitable. Getting free cash to purchase feedstock will fast track their success as it allows them to lock in larger contracts and increase their gross profit.
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