Espoo, Finland-based Paptic, a producer of sustainable packaging material, announced on Monday that it has secured €23M in a Series A round of funding.
The round was led by the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), with participation from US-based chemical company Ecolab and Japanese trading house Itochu Fibre Ltd.
Paptic says it will use the funds to accelerate its growth and expand its materials portfolio.
The company claims the capital infusion will also benefit its global customer base and accelerate the industrial scaling of Paptic’s foam-based manufacturing technology.
In addition, the investment also supports its commitment to be carbon-neutral by 2030.
“We are very happy that our work and solutions to reduce the use of fossil-based materials in flexible packaging are recognised as sustainable and commercially viable alternatives for today and tomorrow. The new investments enable us to take the next step in our company’s journey to boost our growth to new markets,” says Tuomas Mustonen, CEO and co-founder of Paptic.
“Our renewable and recyclable materials, with unique touch and feel properties, are a drop-in solution to replace plastics in flexible packaging as they run efficiently on existing converting lines,” adds Mustonen.
Paptic: Promote sustainability in the packaging industry
Founded in 2015, Paptic has developed a fibre-based recyclable material to replace plastics and conventional materials in packaging.
According to the company, the global market for flexible packaging is estimated at over €200B annually – 70 per cent of the materials used are plastics.
In nearly half of the end-uses, plastic could be replaced with renewable and recyclable Paptic materials, suggests the company.
Already many companies have committed to switching from plastics to packaging solutions from sustainable sources with low-carbon value chains, claims the company.
The company says that one of the sustainability forerunners in the toy industry, Germany-based fischertechnik, has replaced the plastic in the packaging of its bio-based construction set ‘Animal Friends’ with wood-fibre based Paptic material.
The Finnish company claims all sustainability aspects are considered, including the substrate, design, printing, and inks, in its optimised packaging,.
Currently, Espoo-based firm employs 35 professionals and its materials are delivered to over 50 countries.
The investors
The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is a fund initiated by the European Union in the field of bioeconomy and circular economy.
European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) invests in deep-tech companies that develop solutions to support the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy and bio-based circular economy.
Guillaume Gras, Investment Director at ECBF, says, “The versatile applicability of recyclable Paptic materials provides an excellent basis to reduce the use of fossil-based materials in packaging. Our investment will provide Paptic with the resources to accelerate its international expansion, as well as to serve the growing demand for innovative sustainable packaging materials.”
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/espoos-paptic-bag-23m/
