NETHERLANDS – The European Investment Fund (EIF), a part of the European Investment Bank Group, has invested €50 million (US$54.20m) in Dutch venture capital Infinity Recycling’s Circular Plastics Fund (CPF).
The fund supports companies with scalable technologies that need financing for the industrial and commercial scale-up of their operations.
The Circular Plastics Fund has a target size of €150 million (US$162.65m), a third of which is covered by the EIF’s commitment.
The transaction is supported by the InvestEU program, which aims to mobilize over €372 billion (US$403.38bn) in additional investment for EU policy priorities over the 2021-27 period, as well as by the European Investment Bank.
As traditional (mechanical) recycling causes plastics to lose their initial properties (safety for food use, strength, or elasticity), the Circular Plastics Fund supports advanced recycling technologies.
These include chemical processes that enable the full recycling of end-of-life plastic waste, producing new plastics with virgin-equivalent properties and reintroducing them into the existing value chain. The fund can thus play a role in enabling a fully circular plastics industry.
“For most Europeans recycling is already an integral part of their daily lives. Establishing a true circular economy also requires industrial solutions that allow plastics to be recycled fully, efficiently and many times over,” commented Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius.
“Today’s funding through InvestEU will help innovative European companies advance a circular plastics industry, acting as a booster for the EU’s green transition.”
The fund is established in Luxembourg and is managed by Rotterdam-based fund manager Infinity Recycling BV.
The InvestEU support for the EIF’s participation in the fund falls under the initiative’s thematic “Joint Equity Product” and “Climate & Environmental Sub-Product” windows.
“The proportion of plastic packaging that is recycled is still far too low,” added EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt.
“Our climate change and environmental sustainability challenge is a combination of many different issues, and the excessive use of plastics is a major factor.
“A lot can be achieved by changing our habits, but innovation is key to finding new ways of dealing with structural plastic use and making sure we use every piece of plastic as many times as possible. With the support of the InvestEU program, we are very happy to be supporting this kind of innovation.”
The fund achieved a €40 million (US$43.37m) first at the start of 2022, as covered by Impact Investor, with Invest-NL as cornerstone investor.
Instead of focusing on traditional (mechanical) recycling techniques, the fund backs businesses offering advanced recycling technologies, including chemical processes that enable the full recycling of end-of-life plastic waste, producing new plastics with virgin-equivalent properties and reintroducing them into the existing value chain.
The fund’s first investment, in May 2022 was in Pryme, a cleantech company behind Europe’s single largest plastic waste advanced recycling project in Rotterdam.
Later that year, it also invested in recycling firm Clariter, a Luxembourg-registered company that converts plastic waste for use as inputs in industrial and consumer products.
Earlier this summer, the fund was among a group of investors backing DePoly, a Swiss startup that has developed a universal chemical recycling process that converts plastic waste into raw materials.
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