The Netherlands-headed digital product passports and mass balance bookkeeping software startup Circularise has secured some EUR 11 million total in funding from Japan-headed global chemicals major, Asahi Kasei Corporation (Asahi Kasei), Dutch "ecosystem investor" Brightlands Venture Partners (BVP), Finland-headed oil refiner, and renewable products major Neste, and Dutch early-stage digital tech investor 4impact VC.
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With its blockchain-based digital product passports, Circularise enables customers to improve resource use, verify provenance, and 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.
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 the utilization of products made from biomass and recycled raw materials, said Takashi Morishita, President of CVC at Asahi Kasei.
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.
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, said Jordi de Vos, Co-Founder of 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 the 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, said Lars Peter Lindfors, Neste’s SVP of Innovation.
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.
Brightlands Venture Partners is excited to lead this Series A round with such a strong consortium of VCs 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, said Mary McCarthy, Partner at Brightlands Venture Partners.
BVP is the fund manager of the BVP Renewable Chemistry Fund, which is co-funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and is a so-called ecosystem investor. BVP invests in companies benefiting from and contributing to the Brightlands campuses in the Netherlands.
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.
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 toward a circular economy. Circularise’s proprietary technology coupled with the team’s expertise and unwavering commitment will enable complex value chains to be reformed in more environmentally friendly and cost-effective ways, said Ali Najafbagy, Managing Partner and co-founder of 4impact capital.
