The Hague, The Netherlands, September 8, 2020 - Circularise, a blockchain solution for tracing materials and sharing data, has raised €1.5 million from the EU Commission’s H2020’s SME Instrument Phase 2, to fuel the continued growth of the collaborative project for circularity in the plastics industry.
Circularise’s founder Jordi de Vos stated: “This funding shows that the EU Commission is ready to invest in emerging technologies that can enable real growth in the circular economy space. With this support we will scale projects with our existing partners, attract new people to join us on this exciting journey and accelerate the transition to a circular economy on a global scale.”
“Circularise Plastics is building a data-exchange protocol with privacy at its heart, which we believe is a smart strategy as privacy concern is what often refrains companies from becoming more transparent.” says Thomas Nuyts, Director of Global Product Management, who is leading the development of Circularise Plastics at Domo Chemicals.
The EU funding is seen as a big step forward for Circularise to continue its work on making supply chains more transparent and sustainable, so that plastic waste can be countered. The vision is to become an industry standard: a secure and open system for global supply chains.
“The backing of the European Commission means a lot, and we’re excited to support Circularise Plastics in the next stage of growth,” says Dr. Burkhard Zimmermann, Head of Resin, Digital Transformation & Sustainability, Covestro Polycarbonates.
Over the last four years since Circularise launched in 2016, the company proved blockchain to be a strong enabler for all the data, documents and information exchanges happening within complex supply chains, while safeguarding sensitive data.
Since the collaboration with Covestro and Domo was announced last year, the first version of the systems has been built and tested. Building on this success, in spring 2020, Circularise was selected into an acceleration program by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Now the raised capital will fuel the continued growth of Circularise Plastics.
Circularise founded in 2016 and based in The Netherlands helps plastic manufacturers, brands and OEMs to trace raw materials from source, into parts and ultimately to end products. The company uses blockchain and other emerging technologies to enable companies share data about their products while retaining privacy over sensitive information.
DOMO Chemicals is a leading producer of high-quality engineering nylon materials for a diverse range of markets, including the automotive, food, medical, pharmaceutical, chemicals and electronics industries. The company offers a complete portfolio of integrated nylon 6 and 66 products, including intermediates, resins, engineering plastics, performance fibres, packaging film and distribution of petrochemical products. Headquartered in Germany, the family- owned company leverages advanced technology and consumer insights to deliver sustainable & innovative solutions. DOMO generated 2019 sales over EUR 900 million and employs in 2020 approximately 2200 employees worldwide.
With 2019 sales of EUR 12.4 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 17,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2019.