Seed funding for circular bioeconomy startup traceless materials

Hamburg — The two foun­ders Dr. Anne Lamp and Johanna Baare (photo) of Circu­lar Bioe­co­nomy startup trace­l­ess mate­ri­als were able to convince three inves­tors in their first round of finan­cing: Planet A, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and b.value AG. Thus, trace­l­ess mate­ri­als secu­res a single-digit million invest­ment only seven months after its foundation.

Hamburg-based startup trace­l­ess mate­ri­als has deve­lo­ped a holi­stic sustainable mate­rial as an alter­na­tive for plas­tics and biopla­s­tics. The inno­va­tive mate­rial is fully compost­a­ble — even when it unin­ten­tio­nally ends up in nature — and thus contri­bu­tes to solving global plas­tic pollu­tion. For the female foun­ding team, the funding is the corner­stone to bring their inno­va­tive new mate­rial to market to solve global plas­tic pollution.

85% of all plas­tics produ­ced world­wide are still in land­fills or floa­ting in our oceans. The result is signi­fi­cant envi­ron­men­tal and marine pollu­tion, with unima­gi­ned conse­quen­ces for humans, animals and our planet. One of the EU’s stated goals in its Plas­tics Stra­tegy is to ensure that all plas­tic pack­a­ging must be recy­clable or reusable by 2030. For products that can easily end up in the envi­ron­ment, howe­ver, some­thing more is needed: mate­ri­als that can be degra­ded in nature in the shor­test possi­ble time and, above all, comple­tely. This is exactly what trace­l­ess mate­ri­als deals with. The speci­ally deve­lo­ped, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy makes it possi­ble for the first time to produce storage-stable films, solid mate­ri­als and ultra-thin coatings from by-products of the agri­cul­tu­ral indus­try, which offer the advan­ta­ge­ous proper­ties of plas­tics and yet are fully compost­a­ble in nature.

While trace­l­ess mate­ri­als are made from bio-based raw mate­ri­als, they do not conflict with food produc­tion or contri­bute to land use change. Unlike conven­tio­nal (bio)plastics, they require no harmful addi­ti­ves, solvents or chemi­cals and have up to 87% lower CO2 emis­si­ons. Since they are neither chemi­cally modi­fied nor synthe­ti­cally poly­me­ri­zed, trace­l­ess mate­ri­als are not expec­ted to fall under the EU Plas­tics Direc­tive. Quali­ta­tively, the mate­ri­als are alre­ady compe­ti­tive with conven­tio­nal plas­tics and biopla­s­tics. Produ­ced on an indus­trial produc­tion scale, they will also be able to compete with conven­tio­nal plas­tics in terms of price. This makes trace­l­ess a solu­tion for people all over the world, in all walks of life and income levels.

The foun­ders will use the invest­ment to build and expand the core team and to advance the cons­truc­tion of a pilot plant. This will scale up produc­tion from labo­ra­tory scale to produce suffi­ci­ent mate­rial and bring the first pilot products to market in early 2022. Compa­nies from the consu­mer goods indus­try as well as pack­a­ging and plas­tics proces­sing compa­nies are alre­ady show­ing great inte­rest in the novel mate­ri­als. Legis­la­tive pres­sure, incre­asing custo­mer demand and the urgency to stop the nega­tive impact of plas­tic on the envi­ron­ment create a unique situa­tion for trace­l­ess to change the plas­tics market in a sustainable way.

“Based on Planet A’s scien­ti­fic impact assess­ment, we are confi­dent that trace­l­ess’ unique solu­tion has the poten­tial to make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to solving global plas­tic pollu­tion and sustain­ably trans­form the plas­tics market,” said Tobias Seikel, co-foun­­der and part­ner at Planet A.

Dr. Anne Lamp, inven­tor of the trace­l­ess tech­no­logy, and Johanna Baare (photo) co-foun­­ded trace­l­ess in Septem­ber 2020: “We are parti­cu­larly proud to have the support of expe­ri­en­ced venture capi­tal inves­tors who under­stand our deep tech solu­tion, share our mission and want to work with us to maxi­mize our posi­tive impact. We are confi­dent that their diverse expe­ri­ence will help us on our jour­ney and toge­ther we can quickly and safely scale our tech­no­logy to indus­trial produc­tion levels. Toge­ther with our custo­mers, we plan to bring the first products made from trace­l­ess mate­ri­als to market in early 2022.” www.traceless.eu

“We evalua­ted diverse compa­nies deve­lo­ping sustainable plas­tic alter­na­ti­ves, but none of them excel­led as trace­l­ess did in combi­ning a strong manage­ment team, supe­rior tech­no­logy with distinct compe­ti­tive advan­ta­ges, supe­rior mate­rial proper­ties and holi­stic sustaina­bi­lity. We are ther­e­fore plea­sed to support the trace­l­ess team with our tech­ni­cal and opera­tio­nal exper­tise to drive the deve­lo­p­ment of the company and its products”, explains Corne­lia Bähr, Invest­ment Mana­ger at b.value

The close cont­acts between b.value and the German biotech indus­try open new doors for the team. For exam­ple, its network and port­fo­lio compa­nies include some of Germany’s most inno­va­tive deep-tech start­ups as well as expe­ri­en­ced bioe­co­nomy experts. In addi­tion, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) brings toge­ther seve­ral basic and specialty chemi­cals compa­nies invol­ved in poly­mers and ther­mo­pla­s­tic compo­si­tes that have inves­ted in its funds. In addi­tion to indus­try cont­acts and exper­tise, the consor­tium is in a posi­tion to make substan­tial follow-on invest­ments in later rounds.

“In the area of sustainable plas­tic alter­na­ti­ves, we are seeing a lot of inte­rest from the plas­tics proces­sing indus­try as well as from compa­nies in the consu­mer goods sector. In our view, trace­l­ess has the poten­tial to become a tech­no­logy and market leader in new mate­ri­als for pack­a­ging, for exam­ple,” explains Johan­nes Weber, Invest­ment Mana­ger at HTGF.

About trace­l­ess materials

trace­l­ess mate­ri­als GmbH is a circu­lar bioe­co­nomy startup from Hamburg with a female foun­ding team that offers a holi­stic sustainable alter­na­tive to conven­tio­nal (bio)plastics with the mission to solve global plas­tic pollu­tion on land as well as in water.Their patent-pending tech­no­logy makes it possi­ble for the first time to use by-products of the agri­cul­tu­ral indus­try to produce shelf-stable films, solid mate­ri­als and ultra-thin coatings that offer the same bene­fi­cial proper­ties as plas­tics yet are fully degra­da­ble in nature. While trace­l­ess mate­ri­als are made from bioba­sed raw mate­ri­als, they do not conflict with food produc­tion and ther­e­fore do not contri­bute to land use change. Unlike conven­tio­nal (bio)plastics, trace­l­ess comple­tely elimi­na­tes the addi­tion of harmful plas­ti­ci­zers or solvents and has up to 87% lower CO2 emis­si­ons. Since they are neither chemi­cally modi­fied nor synthe­ti­cally poly­me­ri­zed, trace­l­ess mate­ri­als are not expec­ted to fall under the EU Plas­tics Direc­tive. Manu­fac­tu­red on an indus­trial produc­tion scale, trace­l­ess mate­ri­als are also price compe­ti­tive with conven­tio­nal plas­tics, making them a solu­tion for people around the world, across all demo­gra­phics and income levels. Be part of the solu­tion, not pollution!

About Planet A

Foun­ded in 2020, Planet A is an impact inves­tor targe­ting for-profit start­ups that are making a measura­ble posi­tive impact on the planet while buil­ding scalable busi­nesses. Planet A part­ners with Euro­pean early-stage compa­nies that have the poten­tial to scale globally. The start-ups must contri­bute to a signi­fi­cant posi­tive change in at least one of the follo­wing four key areas: climate protec­tion, waste reduc­tion, resource conser­va­tion and/or biodi­ver­sity protec­tion. For its port­fo­lio compa­nies, Planet A offers impact calcu­la­tion support (scien­ti­fic impact measu­re­ment, fore­cas­ting and visua­liza­tion), the Planet A Network (a diverse, exclu­sive network of expe­ri­en­ced German and Euro­pean entre­pre­neurs) and the Below One Fund as a long-term finan­cing part­ner (early-stage invest­ments with inte­rest in follow-on rounds). Planet A’s mission is to make impact inves­t­ing the new normal. www.planet‑a.com

About b.value AG

With a focus on biotech­no­logy, life scien­ces and chemis­try, b.value AG invests in start-ups in the pre-seed and seed phase in the D‑A‑CH region. In addi­tion to its invest­ment, b.value AG actively supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in their deve­lo­p­ment with its unique “company-buil­­ding” approach. To this end, b.value AG combi­nes a high degree of tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise in its opera­tio­nal team as well as more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence in the estab­lish­ment, manage­ment and deve­lo­p­ment of tech­no­logy compa­nies and the commer­cia­liza­tion of biotech­no­lo­gi­cal products in its manage­ment. It also bene­fits from the accu­mu­la­ted expe­ri­ence of its board of direc­tors in a wide variety of posi­ti­ons in busi­ness, acade­mia and indus­try, as well as an exten­sive network of scien­tists, execu­ti­ves, inves­tors, policy makers and indus­trial and acade­mic thought leaders. b.value AG sees its specia­liza­tion and deep under­stan­ding of the indus­try as the key to success. b.value AG is growing and further expan­ding its current port­fo­lio of seven attrac­tive investments.
www.bvalue-ag.com.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported more than 600 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. Almost EUR 3 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,700 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 120 companies.

Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­­fer-Gesel­l­­schaft and the compa­nies ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deut­sche Bank, Deut­sche Post DHL, Dräger, Dril­lisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, FOND OF, Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Betei­li­gungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, QIAGEN, RWE Gene­ra­tion SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Gruppe, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Infor­ma­tik, WACKER and Wilh. Werhahn KG. www.htgf.de/