Biomaterials startup BZERO says it has closed an oversubscribed €1.5 million seed round to accelerate commercial adoption of its home-compostable film, said to be as thin as 7 microns while having the same mechanical strength as conventional plastic.
BZERO states the seed round resulted in a total investment of €2.5 million from investors Ship2B Ventures, CTL Investments, Torribas, Impact Shakers Ventures and Viscofan. The company produces home-compostable film through its proprietary thermoplastic starch (TPS) technology, aiming to replace low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in everyday items like bags, labels, food nets, and flexible packaging at the same cost.
Paula Cassà, fundraising and investment manager at Ship2B Ventures, comments: “We backed José and Cristina’s team at pre-seed to turn a lab-scale material into an industrial-ready product without losing sight of unit economics and environmental impact. BZERO is now converting its pilots into industrial contracts, which is why we’ve doubled down.”
BZERO says the newly raised capital will support the industrial scaling of its materials beyond its current production capacity of 300 tonnes per year, the expansion of pilot projects with food packaging companies and the continued development of its proprietary bioplastic formulations.
In similar news, earlier this year Plantsea revealed that it has raised around €400,000 to help advance production of its natural polymer film from lab scale to industrial manufacturing trials. Designed to equal the cost of PVOH in laundry and cleaning capsules, it can be heat-sealed, vacuum-formed and manufactured in conventional processes with no adaptations.
Smart Planet Technologies recently announced its HyperBarrier PE film, said to deliver ‘300 times’ the oxygen barrier performance of standard PE film and be recyclable in the PE stream under the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). The film can run on existing extrusion equipment without modification, eliminate tie layers and laminations and maintains its barrier properties after folding, creasing, and high-speed converting.
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