Germany-based bioeconomy start-up Traceless has secured €36m in a series A funding round led by private equity fund UB Forest Industry Green Growth Fund (UB FIGG) and Swen CP’s Blue Ocean fund. UB FIGG invests in sustainable and resource-efficient forest and bio-based industries; the Blue Ocean fund invests in innovations that help address the three existential threats to ocean health. A local banking syndicate consisting of GLS Bank, Hamburg, and Hamburger Sparkasse also participated in the financing round, as well as the company's three existing investors, green-tech investor Planet A Ventures, seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and deep tech investor b.value.
“The Blue Ocean fund seeks to invest in startups bringing innovative solutions to address the 3 main threats to our ocean: overfishing, ocean pollution and climate change. As plastic pollution is one of the main pollutants threatening our ocean, we were seduced by Traceless,” said Olivier Raybaud, managing director of SWEN Capital Partners.
“The traceless team has achieved extremely strong results in terms of material performance, development times and commercialisation of the new material. We are looking forward to accompanying Anne, Johanna and the team in the scale up of this innovative technology,” added Sakari Saarela, partner at UB FIGG.
Founded in 2020, Traceless has developed a certified completely bio-based, home-compostable, and plastic-free material that uses agricultural residues as feedstock. It contains no potentially harmful chemicals and has a minimal ecological footprint: compared to plastic, 91% of CO2 emissions and 89% of fossil energy requirements are saved during production and disposal. Traceless materials are available as a granulate that can be further processed using standard processing technologies and is suitable for applications ranging from rigid moulded parts and flexible films to paper coatings or adhesives.
Traceless materials will use the funding from the round to build a demonstration plant in Hamburg - its first production facility at industrial scale.
“Through scaling our innovative technology, we prove that a climate-friendly, circular, resilient and regenerative industry is possible. With our novel biomaterial, we can make a significant contribution to solving plastic pollution,” said Anne Lamp, co-founder & CEO of Traceless.
The Series A financing round is now the second part of the company's financing strategy to expand its production capacities. As announced earlier this year, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection has awarded €5,128,401 in funding to this project from the Environmental Innovation Programme.