TAGS: Sustainability / Natural Coatings
Climate tech innovator Kelpi secures more than GBP 3 million in fundraising to advance its pioneering technology of creating biomaterial coatings from seaweed. The funding round will bring sustainable packaging for the food & drink and cosmetics sectors a step closer to supermarket shelves.
Kelpi’s unique coatings will enable recyclable and home- or industrially compostable packaging to replace single-use fossil fuel plastics which take hundreds of years to decompose.
Bioplastic Packaging with Barrier Properties
Kelpi will use the funds to conduct manufacturing pilots for their proprietary coatings for paper and card. In many cases, Kelpi materials can match or even exceed the performance of fossil fuel plastic, but in a material that is renewably sourced, marine-safe, compostable and enables the packaging to be recycled after use.
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This landmark investment enables Kelpi to scale up our pioneering work using seaweed to create bioplastic packaging with the barrier properties required by clients. Kelpi can now play a key role in eliminating plastic pollution and ending our dependence on fossil fuels to create single-use packaging,” said Kelpi CEO and co-founder Neil Morris.
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We’re delighted to receive this backing from specialist deep science and sustainability investors like Science Creates Ventures and Green Angel Syndicate to allow us to accelerate our pioneering work with major food and drink companies worldwide to prove our materials at scale,” added Morris.
Seaweed provides a particularly valuable source of carbohydrates for biomaterials. It grows prolifically without need for fertilizers, nor land nor fresh water, offering benefits over alternative plants from which bioplastics can be made. It soaks up carbon as it grows, de-acidifying and re-oxygenating the ocean.
Kelpi’s seed round was led by Science Creates Ventures and Green Angel Syndicate, with funding from One Planet Capital and follow-on investment from Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC), together with private angel investors. The round includes £665,000 of grant funding from Innovate UK’s Combined Investor Partnership.
Reducing Fossil Fuel Dependency
Dr Catherine Fletcher, principal of Science Creates Ventures, said, “Kelpi stood out to us as a strong combination of world-leading scientific innovation with deep entrepreneurial experience. They’re using deep tech to address a highly valuable commercial challenge and we’re excited to be backing the company to scale up its solutions in the vital area of reducing fossil fuel dependence in plastics.”
Cam Ross, CEO of Green Angel Syndicate, said “
Our network of specialist members was impressed with Kelpi’s team and technology, and their pioneering approach to developing biopolymers from renewable feedstocks like seaweed. At scale, the Kelpi approach will play a vital role in reducing fossil fuel dependency, addressing climate change and impacting on plastic pollution.”
As part of the round, Kelpi won grant-funding from the Future Economy Fund through the Combined Investor Partnership programm delivered by SETsquared and funded by Innovate UK.
Source: Kelpi