Biotech firm MacroCycle Technologies has raised $6.5 million in Seed funding to enhance its groundbreaking SolvoGenesis technology aimed at reducing plastic waste and emissions.
MacroCycle Technologies, a biotech firm focused on addressing the challenges of plastic waste, has successfully secured $6.5 million in Seed funding to advance its innovative recycling technology. The funding round was led by Clean Energy Ventures and Volta Circle, with participation from KDT Ventures Home and Neotribe Ventures.
The company’s patented SolvoGenesis technology is designed to recycle plastic waste back into virgin-grade plastic without compromising the integrity of the polymers. This process not only results in zero carbon emissions but also requires 80 percent less energy compared to conventional plastic recycling methods. The remaining 20 percent of the energy used comes from renewable sources. MacroCycle is capable of transforming a variety of plastic waste, including bottles, food trays, and polyester textiles, into high-quality recycled PET.
According to MacroCycle CEO Stwart Pena Feliz, there is a significant opportunity within the $700 billion linear plastics market. He noted, “Today’s recycling technologies are too expensive to build and operate, and still yield low-value products. Our technology provides a more efficient process to produce high-quality plastic that can be adopted as a drop-in solution and which is competitive with fossil fuel-based plastic.” He emphasised that their innovation would crucially enable plastic circularity, allowing customers and suppliers to access both economic and environmental advantages associated with recycling.
The inception of MacroCycle’s technology stems from the academic research conducted by Dr. Jan-Georg Rosenboom, co-founder and CTO, alongside his colleagues at prestigious institutions such as MIT, ETH Zurich, and Politecnico Di Milano.
The funding will be directed towards hiring and scaling operations at their pilot plant, which is pivotal for validating the production processes at a larger scale. This facility is expected to generate the first bottles and garments made entirely from MacroCycle’s recycled PET resin.
MacroCycle Co-Founders, Jan-Georg Rosenboom, PhD (left) and Stwart Peña Feliz (right)
Catia Cesari, Managing Partner of Volta Circle, commented on the venture’s potential, stating, “MacroCycle’s superior unit economics, energy efficiency, and ability to upcycle low-grade feedstocks gives them a critical competitive advantage in a sector that calls for innovation. The team, its technology and its ambition perfectly encapsulate our mission to back the best founders leading the way in the circular economy and we’re delighted to be supporting MacroCycle as it scales and creates genuine global impact.”
The progress made by MacroCycle Technologies marks a significant development in the quest for sustainable solutions in the plastic industry, directly addressing the considerable contribution of plastic production and disposal to global greenhouse gas emissions, which accounts for over 5 percent of total CO2 emissions worldwide.
