The Swiss-based chemical recycling start-up DePoly has raised $13.8 million in a seed funding round to help scale the company’s solution addressing challenges with recycling plastics used for applications such as textiles and consumer packaging.
WHO: Founded in 2020 by Samantha Anderson (CEO), Bardiya Valizadeh (CTO), and Christopher Ireland (CSO), DePoly has developed a chemical recycling technology that converts mixed post-consumer and post-industrial polyester plastic waste streams, as well as polyester-containing fabrics and fibers, back into their precursors at virgin-grade quality. This energy-efficient process operates at room temperature and standard pressure without pre-sorting, pre-washing, or removing contaminant materials.
DePoly has built and operates a pilot plant that processes a capacity of 50 tons per year of these complex PET or polyester plastic streams, showcasing the scope and flexibility of how the technology works for various industries ranging from post-consumer packaging to textiles, fashion, and post-industrial streams. Currently, the company is working on building a new showcase plant with a capacity of 500 tons per year to demonstrate the technology at a commercial scale.
WHY: The new funds will be used to scale up its technology to reduce plastic waste.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Samantha Anderson, CEO and co-founder at DePoly, says, “Plastics are a part of our lives and an existential dilemma facing us all. The plastic market isn’t slowing down, as it’s currently growing at a yearly rate of 5% CAGR and is estimated to be worth over $500 billion.”
“By recycling pre-post-consumer and post-industrial plastics that otherwise would be sent to incineration centres or be landfilled, we at DePoly aim to eliminate plastic waste and create a sustainable source of chemicals by diverting this waste from our environment and lowering our carbon footprint up to 65% at the same time.”
“Plastic pollution is a public health crisis and demands urgent action. Plastic waste has infiltrated every corner of our planet, poisoning our food chain and imperilling wildlife. DePoly is paving the way for a truly sustainable plastic economy,” adds Antonia Albert, Principal at Wingman Ventures. “We are extremely proud to support DePoly since day one on their journey to tackle this planetary crisis to clean our oceans and landfills from plastic waste and to welcome leading investors from the chemicals, recycling, climate and deep tech space onboard to build the global leader for the sustainable plastics recycling.”
Markus Solibieda, Managing Director at BASF Venture Capital, comments, “To truly implement the circular plastics economy, we must transform our business practices, and that requires collaborative efforts from various stakeholders. DePoly’s technology offers a promising solution to address the global plastic waste challenge and concurrently support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to the production of virgin plastics. We are excited to support their mission to create a more sustainable future.”
Jan Willem Muller, Managing Partner at Infinity Recycling, comments, “We believe that DePoly has the team and the drive to bring their groundbreaking innovation for polyester recycling to market. Together with its partners, we are supporting a significant step forward in our joint mission to tackle the global plastic and clothing waste crisis, transforming the future of recycling.”
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