VOID Technologies Ltd., launched in the UK in 2015, has announced that it raised £6 million - €6.7 million - in a funding round led by two investors: Sabic Ventures B.V., a subsidiary of SABIC, and Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund, managed by Capricorn Partners, a Belgium-based asset manager.
For Sabic, the investment illustrates the company’s strategy of innovating and collaborating with partners to come up with sustainable solutions for a circular future. “VOID’s VO+ is a revolutionary technology to create sustainable products,” said Aruna Subramanian, Global Head of SABIC Ventures.
Rob van der Meij, Senior Investment Manager of Capricorn Partners added: “VOID is an excellent fit to our Sustainable Chemistry portfolio.” VOID has developed an additive technology called VO+ The technology that engineers a nano-scale cavitated structure into commodity and bio-based plastics, decreasing the material’s density by replacing plastic with air. This technology, based on polymeric additives and orientation processes, has big implications for the reduction of plastic consumption, as it allows the quantity of plastic used in applications - such as packaging - to be reduced by up to 50% while remaining fully recyclable.
The recyclability of the technology when used with LLDPE was shown in an assessment carried out by Recyclass in November 2019. The results of the laboratory test, performed according to Recyclass on a cavitated PE film made with a blend of metallocene LLDPE and VO+ masterbatch in accordance with the RecyClass Recyclability Evaluation Protocol for PE films, demonstrated that ‘VO+ LLDPE’ was compatible with recycling.
VOID is now working with global polymer producers, packaging manufacturers and consumer goods companies to develop and launch its products. Securing this funding will enable the start-up to expand its laboratory and technology development capabilities and establish manufacturing in both the US and Europe, said James Gibson, founding CEO of VOID.
“Our technology makes plastics lighter, stronger and more sustainable. We know this proposition is well aligned with market demand for products that use less plastic and we are looking forward to launching products with our partners,” he concluded.