23 million euros for sustainable packaging materials: ECBF leads Paptic financing round

• ECBF expands its technology portfolio and invests in Paptic, a growth-stage producer of fiber-based packaging materials to promote sustainability in the packaging industry
• Paptic’s renewable and recyclable materials can replace plastic-based materials in numerous flexible packaging solutions
• Investments contribute to achieving the EU’s recycling and climate targets according to the EU-Green Deal

Together with the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), US-based chemical company Ecolab and Japanese trading house ItochuFibre Ltd, Paptic (http://www.paptic.com) has closed a Series A financing amounting to 23 million euros to drive the growth of the Finnish company and expand its materials portfolio.

Solutions for reducing the use of fossil-based materials in the packaging industry

The global market for flexible packaging is estimated at over 200 billion euros annually – 70 percent of the materials used are plastics. In nearly half of the end-uses, plastic could be replaced with renewable and recyclable Paptic® materials.

Many well-known companies have already committed to switching from plastics to packaging solutions from sustainable sources with low-carbon value chains, in line with the circular economy. The shift is being reinforced by recycling and climate targets in the EU and other markets.

For instance, fischertechnik replaces the plastic with Paptic® material in their packaging of its bio-based construction set “AnimalFriends”. With Paptic®, one of the sustainability forerunners in the toy industry, has replaced single-use plastic in pouches with wood fibre-based Paptic® material. The fibre-based and recyclable Paptic® material enables the production of a new, truly sustainable vegetable packaging solution. In this optimized packaging, all sustainability aspects are considered, including the substrate, design, printing, and inks. 

ECBF leads 23 million euros growth capital funding round from Paptic

Founded in 2020, ECBF (www.ecbf.vc) invests in deep-tech companies that support the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy and bio-based circular economy. With this new investment, the impact fund aims to promote a new generation of materials based on sustainably sourced, renewable fibers instead of fossil raw materials and address global challenges such as plastic waste, climate changeas well as resource scarcity.