Circular Economy
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Sky Ocean Ventures is a £25m impact investment fund and part of the Sky Media Group. It was launched in 2018 with the goal of accelerating businesses that can tackle global plastic pollution with innovative ideas and disruptive technologies. The firm has backed 20 startups that have developed solutions that help mitigate plastic disposals in the environment, such as disposable bottles made of paper, reusable delivery boxes, sachets made from seaweed and packaging made from wood chips. Sky Ocean Ventures also partners with, among others, The National Geographic and the Imperial College in London.
Sky Ocean Ventures is a £25m impact investment fund and part of the Sky Media Group. It was launched in 2018 with the goal of accelerating businesses that can tackle global plastic pollution with innovative ideas and disruptive technologies. The firm has backed 20 startups that have developed solutions that help mitigate plastic disposals in the environment, such as disposable bottles made of paper, reusable delivery boxes, sachets made from seaweed and packaging made from wood chips. Sky Ocean Ventures also partners with, among others, The National Geographic and the Imperial College in London.
London-based Sustainability Ventures is one of the UK’s leading early-stage investors in Cleantech. It comprises a group of successful entrepreneurs with a track record in building and investing in high-growth start-ups. It has created Europe’s largest ecosystem for cleantech and sustainability startups, as a business founder and investor, provider of accelerator and support services and provider of shared workspaces. Active since 2011, Sustainability Ventures has raised £250m in total equity funds to date. Its focus is on agritech and food, building technology, circular economy, future energy and mobility. It has established 10 companies, invested in 30 and supported the development of over 250 more enterprises as of 2021 and aims to develop 1,000 sustainable startups by 2025.
London-based Sustainability Ventures is one of the UK’s leading early-stage investors in Cleantech. It comprises a group of successful entrepreneurs with a track record in building and investing in high-growth start-ups. It has created Europe’s largest ecosystem for cleantech and sustainability startups, as a business founder and investor, provider of accelerator and support services and provider of shared workspaces. Active since 2011, Sustainability Ventures has raised £250m in total equity funds to date. Its focus is on agritech and food, building technology, circular economy, future energy and mobility. It has established 10 companies, invested in 30 and supported the development of over 250 more enterprises as of 2021 and aims to develop 1,000 sustainable startups by 2025.
Founded in 2018, Tilia Impact Ventures is the first social impact fund in the Czech Republic. Co-founding partner Silke Horáková has worked in private equity and is also a co-owner of Albatross Media. Co-founding partner Petr Vítek has worked for nine years as a Deloitte consultant. He is also co-founder of Impact Hub in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Both have experience working in the social enterprise sector. About 23 investors have contributed to the impact fund. Tilia plans to have 10 local social impact companies in its portfolio, each with an expected investment life of five to seven years. The VC has invested in four companies to date: smart vending SaaS platform MIWA Technologies, data-mining startup Datlab, ready-made spectacles supplier DOT glasses and waste-to-resource marketplace Cyrkl.
Founded in 2018, Tilia Impact Ventures is the first social impact fund in the Czech Republic. Co-founding partner Silke Horáková has worked in private equity and is also a co-owner of Albatross Media. Co-founding partner Petr Vítek has worked for nine years as a Deloitte consultant. He is also co-founder of Impact Hub in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Both have experience working in the social enterprise sector. About 23 investors have contributed to the impact fund. Tilia plans to have 10 local social impact companies in its portfolio, each with an expected investment life of five to seven years. The VC has invested in four companies to date: smart vending SaaS platform MIWA Technologies, data-mining startup Datlab, ready-made spectacles supplier DOT glasses and waste-to-resource marketplace Cyrkl.
Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) is an industrial group owned by Indonesian tycoon Sukanto Tanoto. It employs 60,000 people worldwide with assets worth over $20bn. Tanoto started his business empire in 1967 as a supplier of spare parts to oil and construction companies in Indonesia. He went on to invest in oil palm plantations in 1979. Since 1985, his group companies have been managing 30,000 acres of oil palm trees each year across a total land area of 160,000 hectares.Headquartered in Singapore, RGE has interests in diverse sectors like paper palm oil, viscose, asset management, real estate, construction and energy. RGE owns the world’s largest viscose producer Sateri, Asia Pacific Rayon and energy firm Pacific Oil & Gas. It is also the owner of the Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL), one of the world’s largest pulp and paper mills. The Rainforest Action Network and other NGOs like Greenpeace and the WWF have put considerable pressure on the RGE group’s unsustainable operations such as the destruction of rainforests by APRIL. In 2019, RGE announced plans to invest $200m in cellulosic textile fiber research and development over a period of 10 years. Projects will include the scaling up of proven clean technology in fiber manufacturing, bringing pilot-scale production to commercial scale and R&D in emerging frontier solutions.
Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) is an industrial group owned by Indonesian tycoon Sukanto Tanoto. It employs 60,000 people worldwide with assets worth over $20bn. Tanoto started his business empire in 1967 as a supplier of spare parts to oil and construction companies in Indonesia. He went on to invest in oil palm plantations in 1979. Since 1985, his group companies have been managing 30,000 acres of oil palm trees each year across a total land area of 160,000 hectares.Headquartered in Singapore, RGE has interests in diverse sectors like paper palm oil, viscose, asset management, real estate, construction and energy. RGE owns the world’s largest viscose producer Sateri, Asia Pacific Rayon and energy firm Pacific Oil & Gas. It is also the owner of the Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL), one of the world’s largest pulp and paper mills. The Rainforest Action Network and other NGOs like Greenpeace and the WWF have put considerable pressure on the RGE group’s unsustainable operations such as the destruction of rainforests by APRIL. In 2019, RGE announced plans to invest $200m in cellulosic textile fiber research and development over a period of 10 years. Projects will include the scaling up of proven clean technology in fiber manufacturing, bringing pilot-scale production to commercial scale and R&D in emerging frontier solutions.
Rubio Impact Ventures (formerly Social Impact Ventures)
Founded in Amsterdam in 2014, Rubio Impact Ventures was formerly known as Social Impact Ventures. The VC currently invests in sustainability-focused startups that are predominantly based in the Netherlands and north-western Europe. It currently has 27 portfolio companies including fair coffee brand Wakuli and cultured meat pioneer Masa Meat. The “Rubicon crossing” VC has just raised €110m for its second impact fund, Rubio Fund 2, in October 2021.Recent investments include participation in the $43m Series B round of food-sharing app OLIO in September 2021 and the €3.6m seed round in July 2021 for Portuguese Arborea that uses micro-organisms in biotech for foodtech applications.
Founded in Amsterdam in 2014, Rubio Impact Ventures was formerly known as Social Impact Ventures. The VC currently invests in sustainability-focused startups that are predominantly based in the Netherlands and north-western Europe. It currently has 27 portfolio companies including fair coffee brand Wakuli and cultured meat pioneer Masa Meat. The “Rubicon crossing” VC has just raised €110m for its second impact fund, Rubio Fund 2, in October 2021.Recent investments include participation in the $43m Series B round of food-sharing app OLIO in September 2021 and the €3.6m seed round in July 2021 for Portuguese Arborea that uses micro-organisms in biotech for foodtech applications.
QOA: Gourmet guilt-free chocolate, without the cocoa
Munich-based QOA transforms industrial food waste into vegan chocolate, enabling consumers to avoid the sustainability and ethical issues of cocoa production
Beyond Leather Materials: Turning apples into alt-leather for sustainable fashion
Through its Leap brand, the Danish startup cuts food waste by turning apples junked in cider factories into affordable vegan leather for the $100bn leather market
Infinited Fiber: Producing biofibers for fashion to move toward circular economy
Supported by H&M, Adidas and textile manufacturers, Infinited Fiber is helping the world’s second most polluting industry go greener by turning industrial waste into regenerated biomaterials
MIWA Technologies: Reducing food waste and packaging with smart refill vending system
MIWA’s solution lets consumers buy exact refill quantities in personalized containers, eradicating need for single-use plastics throughout the supply chain
Refurbed: Electronics recycling marketplace gets $54m for EU consolidation, overseas expansion
Consumers can reduce their carbon footprints by shifting toward a circular economy, become carbon-neutral by planting one tree with every purchase from Refurbed
Petit Pli: Origami-inspired clothes that still fit, even after the body has grown
Founded by a young aeronautical engineer, Petit Pli produces stylish, sustainable pleated garments made from recycled plastic that expand up to seven sizes
Kryha: Enabling big businesses' green practices with blockchain
Kryha’s blockchain systems help companies trace the movement and transformation of resources among multiple stakeholders without exposing sensitive information
COMY Energy: Closing the plastic waste loop with chemical recycling
The Chinese startup transforms plastic wastes to virgin-quality recycled products without releasing toxic gas or pollution and is attracting interest from petrochemical giants and waste management companies
SWITCH Singapore: Sustainability startups see growing demand from corporates
Sophie’s BioNutrients, Ubiik and Intello Labs also note new trends in technology and supply chain arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, across the food, manufacturing and e-commerce sectors
iCell: Upcycling nutrients from wastewater
Hong Kong-based iCell Sustainable Nutrition makes single-cell proteins with wastewater from food and beverage factories, generating revenue and purifying the water for safe discharge or reuse
Bygen: Turning waste into activated carbon
Australian startup Bygen is offering agribusinesses more reasons to upcycle waste sustainably into a lucrative product with its eco-friendly process to make activated carbon
Botree Cycling: Recovering critical metals from end-of-life batteries
The Beijing-based startup helps clients dismantle and recycle spent lithium batteries on-site, recovering over 90% of rare metals and reducing demand for mineral resources
Oceanium: Supporting sustainable seaweed farming
Scottish startup Oceanium has developed a proprietary biorefinery and processing model to create seaweed-based compostable materials, alt-protein ingredients and nutraceuticals for use across industry verticals
Future Food Asia 2021: Agrifood tech at an inflection point
Agrifood tech startups urged to harness consumer, investor and government feedback to create plentiful, nutritious food through sustainable means, but exercise caution when considering IPOs
Node: Fighting deforestation with fashionable footwear from agricultural waste
Using patented technology developed with Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Node turns farm waste and plant materials into biodegradable vegan footwear and shoe components to help fight deforestation.
