The corporate venture capital arm of BASF Group, BASF Venture Capital (BVC) has announced that it has made a strategic investment in Oceanworks, a US-based startup platform for ocean, ocean-bound, and post-consumer-recycled plastic sourcing.
The investment underlines BASF’s commitment to developing sustainable solutions to promote the transition to a circular economy, the company said.
Oceanworks aims to support companies in achieving their ambitions for using higher rates of recycled content in their products, by acting as a trusted source to provide high-quality sources of ocean, ocean-bound, and averted PCR plastic.
The startup has developed a digitised blockchain-based solution that provides customers with the traceability and material quality assurance, they need as well as global logistics and marketing support. The technology enables the recycled plastics to be traced back to origin.
BVC’s investment is part of Oceanworks’ Series Seed financing, enabling the company to accelerate the development of its sourcing engine and track-and-trace verification for recycled ocean plastic. The parties have agreed not to disclose the financial details of the investment.
“Oceanworks’ traceability tools add real value to reducing plastic waste.” said Markus Solibieda, Managing Director of BASF Venture Capital. The two companies are now examining how they can together promote the development of technologies that accelerate plastics recycling and bring these new traceable ocean plastic materials to global customers.
“Oceanworks is excited to partner with BASF to propel the growth of our new business model for responsible plastic sourcing backed by real-time, digitised shore-to-shelf traceability,” said Vanessa Coleman, CEO Oceanworks. “We look forward to accelerating the reclamation of ocean plastic waste to fuel the circular economy.”