Technological watch
cirplus: Millions to combat plastic pollution
Just in time ahead of the third anniversary of its founding, Hamburg-based start-up cirplus has completed a major round of financing. The company received an injection of capital totalling 3.3 million Euros as part of their seed fundraising. The digital marketplace for plastic waste and recyclates, founded by Christian Schiller and Volkan Bilici, is being backed by leading marketplace and climate-tech investors from across Europe and the USA.
cirplus functions as a procurement platform for recycled plastics, connecting recyclers with plastics converters. The converters are able to find recycled materials in extremely fragmented markets. This, in turn, enables them to manufacture new products with a higher proportion of recycled content at scale, especially in the packaging, automotive and construction industry. cirplus’ goal is to reduce the cost of producing and trading high-quality recyclates and enable them to compete with virgin plastic products.
The closing of the financing round coincides with the publication of DIN SPEC 91446, the new industrial standard for high-quality recycling, which was initiated and co- developed by cirplus to stimulate the market in line with EU requirements.
"My team and I are very grateful to have such experienced investors and entrepreneurs supporting us in our mission to bring plastic waste into a true circular economy. The road is still long and difficult, but we are now well equipped to boost
global recycling with the help of our software for a material that is both a curse and a blessing”, says Christian Schiller, co-founder and CEO of Europe's leading digital marketplace for recyclates.
“COP26 made it very clear that the world needs to accelerate the transition to sustainable business models. cirplus is bringing the power of networks effects to the fragmented markets of plastic recycling and thus tackles one of the largest ecological problems of our time with technology – this is why we are delighted to partner with Christian and his team”, says Per Brilioth, managing director of VNV Global, who is leading this round.
cirplus functions as a procurement platform for recycled plastics, connecting recyclers with plastics converters. The converters are able to find recycled materials in extremely fragmented markets. This, in turn, enables them to manufacture new products with a higher proportion of recycled content at scale, especially in the packaging, automotive and construction industry. cirplus’ goal is to reduce the cost of producing and trading high-quality recyclates and enable them to compete with virgin plastic products.
The closing of the financing round coincides with the publication of DIN SPEC 91446, the new industrial standard for high-quality recycling, which was initiated and co- developed by cirplus to stimulate the market in line with EU requirements.
"My team and I are very grateful to have such experienced investors and entrepreneurs supporting us in our mission to bring plastic waste into a true circular economy. The road is still long and difficult, but we are now well equipped to boost
global recycling with the help of our software for a material that is both a curse and a blessing”, says Christian Schiller, co-founder and CEO of Europe's leading digital marketplace for recyclates.
“COP26 made it very clear that the world needs to accelerate the transition to sustainable business models. cirplus is bringing the power of networks effects to the fragmented markets of plastic recycling and thus tackles one of the largest ecological problems of our time with technology – this is why we are delighted to partner with Christian and his team”, says Per Brilioth, managing director of VNV Global, who is leading this round.
This project has been co-funded with the support of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union [LIFE17 ENV/ES/000438] Life programme
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