Upon the fifth close of its Circular Plastics Fund in December 2023, Infinity Recycling has reached €135 million in committed capital from various institutional investors, with which it aims to support advanced recycling companies to scale up their operations.
An initial target size was set at €150 million for the Circular Plastics Fund, which is an Article 9 ‘dark green’ impact fund as per the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. Its investments set to scale up advanced recycling technology companies with strong growth prospects – thus driving a transition into a circular economy for plastics.
A range of international investors and three new Limited Partners have contributed to the fund, including Investeringsfonds Groningen (IFG). Their contributions are expected to help commercialize the advanced recycling market, which is then expected to unlock circularity for plastics and help decarbonize the industry.
“For IFG, the investment is obvious,” says fund manager Jan Timmer. “We want to move from fossil to circular and sustainable and are always looking for the best way to achieve that goal.
“Setting up a green chemistry plant is extremely capital intensive, so it makes sense that we look at funds like CPF. Especially because it does not only provide capital, but also expertise and advice that the entrepreneurs in Groningen can benefit from.”
“The strong interest from institutional investors, keen to make an environmental impact, is a clear endorsement of our mission: catalyzing the world’s transition to a circular economy of plastics,” added Jeroen Kelder, managing partner at Infinity Recycling. “We are thankful for the support from new limited partners such as IFG, who have recognized Infinity Recycling’s differentiated investment focus.”
Previously, the Circular Plastics Fund received a €50 million investment from the European Union’s European Investment Fund. The transaction was supported by the InvestEU programme, which aims to mobilize over €372 billion in additional investment for EU policy priorities over the 2021-27 period, as well as by the European Investment Bank.
A conversation between Itero Technologies CEO Simon Hansford and Richard Carter, independent consultant and former senior executive at BASF, pointed out that packaging companies across the world are still investing in new plastics capacities, ‘even though there’s already an overcapacity issue’. Carter argued that naming decarbonization as a leading KPI in company strategy metrics would help to solve this issue.
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