Circularise, a Dutch start-up founded in 2016 that has developed a blockchain solution for enhancing transparency by tracing materials and sharing data in the plastics industry, has raised €1.5 million funding from the EU Commission’s H2020’s SME Instrument.
The SME instrument is part of the EU's Horizon 2020 programme and supports high-risk, high-potential small and medium-sized enterprises to develop and bring to market new products, services and business models that could drive economic growth.
The EU backing is a major step forward for Circularise and will enable the company to continue to pursue its goal of making supply chains more transparent and sustainable.Circularise is developing an open standard for sustainability and transparency in the plastics industry, aiming to provide a secure and open system for global supply chains.
“This funding shows that the EU Commission is ready to invest in emerging technologies that can enable real growth in the circular economy space,” said Circularise founder, Jordi de Vos. “With this support we will scale projects with our existing partners, attract new people to join us on this exciting journey and accelerate the transition to a circular economy on a global scale.”
Over the past four years, the company shown how blockchain can be a strong enabler for all the data, documents and information exchanges happening within complex supply chains, while safeguarding sensitive data.
In doing so, it has also attracted notice from the market, last year announcing a collaboration with resin producers Covestro and Domo, with whom it then formed the Circularise PLASTICS project group,
“Circularise Plastics is building a data-exchange protocol with privacy at its heart, which we believe is a smart strategy, as privacy concern is what often refrains companies from becoming more transparent,” explained Thomas Nuyts, Director of Global Product Management, who is leading the development of Circularise Plastics at Domo Chemicals.
“The backing of the European Commission means a lot, and we’re excited to support Circularise Plastics in the next stage of growth,” added Dr. Burkhard Zimmermann, head of Resin, Digital Transformation & Sustainability, Covestro Polycarbonates.
Meanwhile, since the partnership was formed, the first version of the systems has been built and tested. In addition, in the spring of 2020, Circularise was selected into an acceleration program by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Now, this newly raised capital from the EU will fuel the continued growth of Circularise Plastics.