Neste, Brightlands Venture Partners, 4 Impact VC and Asahi Kasei invests combined EUR 11 million into startup Circularise to accelerate a shift towards a circular economy
Neste Corporation, News, 17 November 2022
Photo: Investment announcement at the Slush 2022 event
Neste, Brightlands Venture Partners, 4 Impact VC and Asahi Kasei announce a combined EUR 11 million investment into Netherlands-based startup Circularise. The goal of the investment is to accelerate the transformation to more sustainable materials within the polymers and chemicals industry by providing new digital solutions to boost traceability and visibility of material flows along value chains.
“Together with partners, Neste leads the way in accelerating the transition towards more sustainable solutions for polymers and chemicals. There is an urgent need for new scalable, end-to-end digital solutions to trace renewable and recycled material flows, providing increased transparency along the value chains. Circularise provides novel solutions for this need, and we are excited to support them in speeding up the critical transition to circular solutions,” says Lars Peter Lindfors, Neste’s Senior Vice President, Innovation.
With its blockchain-based digital product passports, Circularise enables customers to improve resource use, verify provenance, conduct carbon footprint and impact assessments across supply chains. This is relevant in complex supply chains such as those of polymers, chemicals, plastics, metals, and critical raw materials. Additionally, the company provides a solution for mass balance bookkeeping, in order to support the shift from fossil feedstocks to sustainable alternatives in the plastic and chemicals industry.
Circularise’s solution helps suppliers to share sensitive data, like material composition, environmental footprint or LCA data, without risking privacy and confidentiality. This is achieved with technology, which allows suppliers to be in control of which data they want to share.
Circularise’s co-founder Jordi de Vos says: “We’re happy to welcome Neste, Brightlands Venture Partners, 4impact and Asahi Kasei as our investors. Our mission has always been clear: accelerating the shift towards a circular economy through supply chain traceability and transparency. This funding round enables us to scale our business operations, product, R&D as well as to expand our international team. It will not only accelerate our growth as a leading software provider for supply chain traceability, but also support the transition to a circular economy on a global scale.”
The agreement about capital injection has been signed, and the completion of the investment is subject to customary closing conditions. The investment is supplemented with grants from the European Commission.
“Brightlands Venture Partners is excited to lead this Series A round with such a strong consortium of VC’s and industry players. The Circularise team truly understands the challenge of bringing transparency to complex supply chains in the chemical industry and has developed a unique portfolio of tools to enable and facilitate this transition. We believe that combining the unique skill set of the Circularise team with the deep sector expertise of Brightlands Venture Partners will allow Circularise to accelerate in bringing supply chain transparency to the chemical industry,” says Mary McCarthy, Partner at Brightlands Venture Partners.
“Through collaboration with Circularise, we, Asahi Kasei, expect to contribute to building a transparent supply chain as a supplier’s responsibility and shift to a circular economy by promoting utilisation of products made from biomass and recycled raw materials,” says Takashi Morishita, President of CVC at Asahi Kasei.
“The Circularise team is and continues to be the leader in blockchain for sustainability and traceability. 4impact has been an early investor and supporter and we are thrilled to continue on our joint journey towards a circular economy. Circularise’s proprietary technology coupled with the team’s expertise and unwavering commitment will enable complex value chains to be reformed to more environmentally friendly and cost-effective ways,” says Ali Najafbagy, Managing Partner and co-founder of 4impact capital.
Further information:
Neste: Please contact Neste's media service, tel. +358 800 94025 / media@neste.com (weekdays from 8.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. EET). Please subscribe to Neste’s releases at https://www.neste.com/for-media/releases-and-news/subscribe.
Circularise: Press contact press@circularise.com
Neste in brief
Neste (NESTE, Nasdaq Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. We refine waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. We are the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel and developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. We aim at helping customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with our renewable and circular solutions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030. Our ambition is to make the Porvoo oil refinery in Finland the most sustainable refinery in Europe by 2030. We are introducing renewable and recycled raw materials such as liquefied waste plastic as refinery raw materials. We have committed to reaching carbon-neutral production by 2035, and we will reduce the carbon emission intensity of sold products by 50% by 2040. We also have set high standards for biodiversity, human rights and supply chain. We have consistently been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies. In 2021, Neste's revenue stood at EUR 15.1 billion. Read more: neste.com
About Circularise
Circularise is a digital product passports and mass balance bookkeeping software provider founded in The Netherlands in 2016. Circularise’s software system helps suppliers in chemicals, plastics, battery materials, metals, and other industries to trace materials and share their environmental footprint without risking their sensitive data. By extension, it helps brands to get visibility into their own Scope 3 emissions and other metrics, which is aligned with the regulatory push around Digital Product Passports, the SEC’s proposed climate risk disclosure rules, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/circularise
About Brightlands Venture Partners
Brightlands Venture Partners (BVP) is the fund manager of BVP Renewable Chemistry Fund and is a so-called ecosystem investor. BVP invests in companies benefiting from and contributing to the Brightlands campuses in the Netherlands. Other funds under management are Chemelot Ventures, Brightlands Agrifood Fund and Limburg Ventures. Together the funds have made over 46 investments. BVP Renewable Chemistry Fund is co-funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).
Read more: www.brightlandsventurepartners.com
About 4impact capital
4impact capital (4impact) is a leading impact investor in groundbreaking, early-stage digital startups in Europe. 4impact backs passionate founders who accelerate the transition to a sustainable world and drive meaningful and measurable change under one of its SDG-aligned investment pillars of environment, inclusion and health and well-being.
Read more: www.4impact.vc
About the Asahi Kasei Corporation
The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber businesses, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. With more than 46,000 employees around the world, the company contributes to a sustainable society by providing solutions to the world's challenges through its three business sectors of Material, Homes, and Health Care. Its Materials sector, comprised of Environmental Solutions, Mobility & Industrial, and Life Innovation, includes a wide array of products from battery separators and biodegradable textiles to engineering plastics and sound solutions.
For more information, visit www.asahi-kasei.com.
