Bathtub, UK-based Naturbeads, a startup commercialising sustainable and biodegradable cellulose elements, introduced on Thursday, November 14 that it has secured £7.8M (roughly €9.3M) in a Sequence A funding spherical led by Eos Advisory.
Different buyers, together with Progress Tech Switch, MITO Tech Ventures, CDP Enterprise Capital, PI-NB, and Paragon Capital Administration, additionally participated within the spherical.
The UK firm will use the funds to develop its know-how additional to deal with worldwide microplastic air pollution. The announcement comes as the corporate is all set to construct its first manufacturing plant in Puglia, Italy.
Naturbeads CEO and co-founder Dr Giovanna Laudisio says, “Microplastics have been discovered on the prime of Arctic mountains and within the depths of the Mariana Trench, with a current research forecasting that microplastic air pollution might greater than double over the subsequent decade.”
“Our differentiator from different corporations who’re making an attempt to resolve challenges round plastic packaging is that we’re one in every of few that’s solely targeted on the plastic discovered inside day by day merchandise, and producing an eco-friendly, scalable various,” provides Laudisio.
Naturbeads: Changing microplastics with cellulose microspheres
Microplastics – plastic particles which can be lower than 5 millimetres in measurement – persist within the surroundings for tons of of years, contributing to air pollution in waterways, marine ecosystems, oceans, and soil.
They’ve been detected in over 1,300 marine species, are embedded within the meals chain, and have raised severe issues about their affect on ecosystems and human well being.
Naturbeads was based in 2018 by Professor Davide Mattia, Giovanna Laudisio, and the late Professor Janet Scott as a spinout from the College of Bathtub.
The corporate has developed a scalable and cost-effective course of for manufacturing biodegradable cellulose microspheres, that are designed to exchange microplastics in quite a lot of client and industrial merchandise.
The corporate is working with a number of producers worldwide to make use of its cellulose microsphere elements in numerous industries.
These microspheres break down naturally with out affecting how effectively merchandise work. The corporate expects to share its first business achievements in 2025.
The investor
Eos invests in, & commercialises, science & know-how, from the native seed stage to the worldwide scale, with a give attention to bettering lives.
Andrew Durkie, Companion, Eos, says, “Giovanna and her crew are tackling some of the pressing environmental challenges of our time, and we sit up for supporting Naturbeads by means of its subsequent, thrilling part of commercialisation.”
Progress Tech Switch is an funding fund specialised in sustainable applied sciences. The fund is suggested by MITO Know-how.
Alberto Calvo, Managing Director of Progress Tech Switch, provides, “The management crew has daring ambitions in arising with an industrial-grade resolution to sort out microplastic air pollution in quite a lot of completely different functions, with a platform know-how that’s delivering excessive technical efficiency with a totally round method.”
