Author: Sarah Minnick

SOLARCYCLE Raises $30M to Scale Advanced Recycling for the Solar Industry 

Oakland, CA / March 15 – SOLARCYCLE, a tech-driven recycling company focused on producing sustainable materials at scale for the solar industry, today announced that it has raised $30M in Series A funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $37M since its inception a year ago.

The funds, consisting of both company equity and infrastructure financing, will be used to scale the company’s growth in solar panel recycling capacity and expand materials remanufacturing capabilities. The round is led by Fifth Wall, the largest asset manager focused on improving, future-proofing and decarbonizing the built world, and HG Ventures, the corporate venture arm of The Heritage Group. The round also included participation from Prologis Ventures, as well as existing investors Urban Innovation Fund and Closed Loop Partners. The announcement follows the initial $6.6M seed round the company raised in May 2022.

Experts in panel manufacturing, advanced recycling, and climate technology founded SOLARCYCLE in 2022 to create a more sustainable, domestic supply chain for the solar industry. Solar adoption is expected to accelerate over this decade, increasing from 150 GWp installed in 2021 to 650GWp installed per year in 2030. In order to meet the increasing demand for new solar panel production, SOLARCYCLE has developed proprietary technology that can cost-effectively return more than 95% of all the valuable materials, like aluminum, glass, copper, silver, and silicon, back into the solar value chain to help create a sustainable and scalable solar industry.

The infrastructure financing, led by Fifth Wall Infrastructure and Special Situations Partner Alok Sindher, provides asset-level equity capital for SOLARCYCLE’s first-of-a-kind Odessa, Texas factory. Fifth Wall’s complementary venture and infrastructure investments address a critical gap in investment for hardware-intensive businesses.

“Fifth Wall looked far and wide, and we believe SOLARCYCLE is the only company within North America aiming to do true, end-to-end solar panel recycling. Their deep solar industry partnerships and ability to extract valuable materials at reasonable cost, with efficient logistics, is what differentiates the company’s position,” said Peter Gajdoš, Partner and Co-Head of The Climate Tech Investment Team at Fifth Wall. “The rapid adoption of customers speaks to the quality of the solution and the growing market demand as solar panel portfolio ages. We are confident in management’s ability to help lead the solar industry into the next chapter and make solar energy even more sustainable.”

“I spent nearly twenty years in the solar industry, helping grow two large solar companies from scratch. When I co-founded SOLARCYCLE in 2022, I knew the moment was right to build an industry-backed advanced technology solution to recycling solar panels that ensures that valuable materials go back into the domestic supply chain,” said Suvi Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of SOLARCYCLE. “This Series A funding will allow us to further advance our patented technology, grow partnerships with industry leaders, and rapidly build recycling infrastructure in the United States and beyond to mine old solar panels for making new solar panels.”

Recent research projects that recyclable materials from solar panels will be worth more than $2.7 billion by 2030, up from $170 million this year. SOLARCYCLE works with residential, commercial and industrial (C&I), and utility companies to recycle solar panels at scale. The company is on track to install capacity to recycle one million solar panels per year by the end of 2023, and plans to open a vertically integrated, advanced recycling factory capable of processing millions of panels annually in 2024.

“SOLARCYCLE provides customers with the first scalable model for solar panel recycling, which aligns perfectly with HG Ventures’ mission to partner with innovative, high-growth companies that support a sustainable future. We are delighted to support SOLARCYCLE’s world class team developing a business model that is both an economic opportunity and an environmental necessity,” said Kip Frey, Managing Director of HG Ventures.

“As the #2 generator of onsite solar in the U.S., we see a strong and urgent need for an advanced circular solar supply chain solution, which SOLARCYCLE delivers,” said Will O’Donnell, Managing Director of Prologis Ventures. “We like that they are making solar energy even more sustainable, given their ability to extract 95% of the material from a panel and return them to the supply chain to make new solar panels.”

The funding announcement follows a founding year in which SOLARCYCLE opened their first, advanced-technology solar recycling facility in Odessa, Texas, inked customer partnerships with major US solar companies, including Sunrun, Silicon Ranch, DEPCOM Power, SOLV Energy, NovaSource, Greentech Renewables, and Forum Energy Partners, and assembled a world-class management team with experience scaling companies such as Amazon, SunPower, and Nextracker.

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About SOLARCYCLE

SOLARCYCLE is a technology-driven platform designed to maximize solar sustainability by offering solar asset owners a low-cost, eco-friendly, comprehensive process for recycling retiring solar panels and technologies and repurposing them for new uses. The company’s proprietary technology allows it to extract 95% of a solar panel’s valuable metals, such as silver, silicon, copper and aluminum, and to recycle or repurpose panels currently in use. Experts in solar technology, recycling and sustainability founded SOLARCYCLE in 2022 to accelerate the circular economy for solar and renewables. www.SOLARCYCLE.us

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About Fifth Wall ‍

Founded in 2016, Fifth Wall, a Certified B Corp, is the largest asset manager focused on improving, future-proofing and decarbonizing the built world. Since 2016, Fifth Wall has raised the third-most capital of any venture firm globally ($2.9B), according to SEC Form D filings. With approximately $3.2B in commitments and capital under management, Fifth Wall is backed by a global mix of more than 110 strategic limited partners (LPs) from more than 15 countries, including BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Hilton, Hines, Host Hotels & Resorts, Kimco Realty Corporation, Lennar, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Marriott International, MetLife Investment Management, MGM Resorts, Related Companies, Starwood Capital, Toll Brothers, and others. This consortium represents one of the largest groups of potential partners in the global built world ecosystem, resulting in transformational investments and collaboration with portfolio companies to cut emissions, improve efficiency, and maximize returns. Founded in Los Angeles and headquartered in New York, Fifth Wall’s other offices include San Francisco, London and Singapore. For more information about Fifth Wall, its LPs, and portfolio, visit www.fifthwall.com.

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About HG Ventures

HG Ventures is the corporate venture arm of The Heritage Group, headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind. HG Ventures supports innovation and growth across The Heritage Group by investing and partnering with innovative, high-growth companies to support a sustainable future. We leverage the world-class expertise of The Heritage Group operating companies and research center to offer a unique value proposition to our portfolio company partners. www.hgventures.com.

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Contact: media@solarcycle.us

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Link to press release: https://www.solarcycle.us/press-releases/solarcycle-raises-30m-equity-financing-to-scale-advanced-recycling-for-the-solar-industry

P2 Science raises funding round led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood

WOODBRIDGE, Conn., Feb. 23, 2023 – P2 Science Inc., a leading green chemistry company, announced today the close of a funding round led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood. In the round, Lewis & Clark was joined by existing investors, including Heritage Group Ventures, Chanel, Elm Street Ventures, and SaferMade. Prior investors in P2 also include BASF Venture Capital, Connecticut Innovations, Advantage Capital, and others.

The proceeds from this round will primarily be used to expand sales and production of Citropol®, P2’s flagship product platform. Through a proprietary process called Process Intensified Continuous Etherification (“PICE”), P2 transforms renewable forest-derived feedstocks into high-performance ingredients for use in a variety of personal care, cosmetics, and beauty products. Citropol® exceeds the performance of traditional emollients, including silicones, and is easy to formulate while safe for human health and the environment. In 2022, P2 won five industry awards, including the Innovation Best Breakthrough Supplier Award from BeautyMatter, one of the most trusted voices in beauty. In addition, in January 2023, Unilever’s haircare brand, Living Proof, launched three new products built on P2’s ingredients.

“We’ve built a new patented, market-leading ingredient platform, that allows customers to build incredibly high-performance products which also satisfy consumer demands, regulatory requirements, and internal sustainability goals,” said Neil Burns, CEO of P2 Science. “There is nothing in the market today like Citropol®. We now have 22 patented Citropol® products that are used in every product category across personal care and beauty. This new round of financing will allow us to supercharge production and accelerate our global sales pipeline.”

In addition to Citropol®, P2 has developed other proprietary products and chemistries for use across industries, such as flavor and fragrance, specialty materials, and more. A process that has also garnered particular interest is P2’s Process Intensified Ozonolysis (“PIOz”), which has a much smaller footprint, is more efficient, and is more scalable than traditional ozonolysis. In May 2020, P2 announced a Joint Development Agreement with Archer Daniels Midland to commercialize renewable plant-based products across high-value markets, such as nylons, polyesters, lubricants, and agrochemicals, utilizing PIOz.

“P2 is one of the very few successful sustainable chemistry platform companies,” said Chuck Warta, Operating Partner with Lewis & Clark AgriFood. “Consumers and companies across industries are looking for highly functional, new, sustainable alternatives. Many in the personal care and beauty space are now turning to P2 for innovation. We are excited to partner with the P2 team and existing investors to grow a world-leading green chemistry company, deeply rooted in technology, with a portfolio of sustainable, high-value, and high-performance products.” As part of this financing, Chuck Warta has joined P2’s Board of Directors.

Stifel acted as an advisor and placement agent to P2 Science for this transaction.

About P2 Science

P2 Science is a green chemistry company co-founded by Professor Paul Anastas, head of the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. P2 has developed and patented technologies for converting renewable feedstocks into high-value specialty products. Investors in P2 include Lewis and Clark AgriFood, Heritage Group Ventures, BASF Venture Capital, and Chanel. The company started its first manufacturing plant in September 2018, producing renewable aroma chemicals and cosmetic ingredients. For more information, visit www.p2science.com.

About Lewis & Clark AgriFood

Lewis & Clark AgriFood is a St. Louis-based group of experienced investment professionals passionate about investing in companies at the forefront of food and agriculture innovation. We look for companies that deliver benefits to the stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector, from the producer, through the supply chain, all the way to the consumer. We invest in companies that are at the growth stage of their evolution, poised to scale their technology to a national or global scale. As founders, operators, investors, and scientists, our seasoned investment team brings a breadth of quality sector experience to every investment. For more information, visit www.lewisandclarkagrifood.com.

Link to press release: https://p2science.com/press-release/p2-science-raises-funding-round-led-by-lewis-clark-agrifood/

ZwitterCo Transforms Performance and Economics for Industrial Wastewater Reuse with $33 Million Series A Funding

DCVC leads the largest Series A funding round for a water technology company with $33 million in financing to scale ZwitterCo’s revolutionary membrane technology that treats the toughest industrial wastewaters for reuse and is immune to irreversible fouling.

Boston, September 15, 2022 – ZwitterCo, Inc., the advanced membrane technology company, today announced the largest Series A funding round in history for a water technology company. The $33 million financing, led by DCVC, will expand the development and production of its revolutionary zwitterionic membrane technology.

ZwitterCo’s technology delivers what the water industry has been seeking for decades: a rugged polymeric membrane that is immune to irreversible fouling. Traditional membrane performance degrades with every cleaning cycle until the membranes no longer work and must be replaced. For tough-to-treat wastewaters, membrane replacement occurs frequently, increasing the operational complexity and cost of running wastewater plants. ZwitterCo membranes, by contrast, perform as new after every cleaning cycle.

ZwitterCo leverages its patented zwitterionic copolymers to build highly advanced membranes that solve the toughest wastewater separation challenges. The performance advantages of ZwitterCo’s membranes make them unique. They can be used in a wide variety of new applications and operating environments, given their ability to repel thousands of times more organic compounds than standard membranes. The company is building a suite of membrane products with these and other capabilities, bringing the precision and reliability of filtration to historically underserved markets.

“ZwitterCo has unlocked the true potential of zwitterions for water treatment, resulting in a leap in membrane performance,” said Chris Drover, co-founder, and CTO of ZwitterCo. “The mechanisms behind fouling and degradation that plague traditional membranes do not apply to our products.”

A zwitterion is a special class of molecule that is “hydrophilic” or highly attractive to water molecules. ZwitterCo’s patented zwitterionic copolymers self-assemble into hydrophilic channels, acting like flumes at a water park, ushering through H₂O molecules, and repelling everything unable to flow through its narrow pores, including organic compounds such as oils, fats, greases, or proteins.

ZwitterCo’s first product, a superfiltration (SF) membrane, targets challenging industrial wastewaters for treatment and reuse. “Today, over 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity at various times during the year,” said Alex Rappaport, co-founder and CEO of ZwitterCo. “As the world works to adapt to population growth and climate change, reusing wastewater safely and economically is imperative.”

Since introducing their SF in 2021, ZwitterCo has booked over a dozen commercial projects and completed dozens more successful pilots. As a result, ZwitterCo is already tackling some of the hardest wastewater treatment challenges, including digestates, leachates, O&G-produced water, poultry & dairy, bioprocessing, and food & beverage wastewaters. Additionally, ZwitterCo membranes are used in novel process applications where fouling recovery, ruggedness, and exacting tolerances are essential, such as protein extraction from bio-fermentation.

The Series A funds will allow the company to add applications development, increase its pilot fleet, and build inventory to meet the strong demand for ZwitterCo products. The funding will also commission ZwitterCo’s state-of-the-art innovation center just north of Boston, accelerating the development of new membrane products based on ZwitterCo chemistry.

One-sixth of the world’s freshwater withdrawals, an estimated 500 billion gallons a day, become industrial and agricultural wastewater. Accelerated depletion of our groundwaters and aquifers, as well as protracted droughts, are worsening water scarcity and threatening food production. As a result, safe and economical wastewater reuse has never been more critical.

“At DCVC, we invest in Deep Tech companies that address urgent, global problems while providing outsized returns for our investors,” said Jason Pontin, a Partner at DCVC and Chairman of ZwitterCo’s Board of Directors. “ZwitterCo’s novel membrane chemistry will help solve water scarcity around the globe by making it easy and affordable for a wide variety of industries to adopt water reuse.”

DCVC led ZwitterCo’s Series A financing, with participation from new investors Heritage Group Ventures, Genoa Ventures, and Mott Corporation. Existing investors MANN+HUMMEL Corporate Ventures, Burnt Island Ventures, and R-Cubed Capital Partners also participated in this round.

 

About ZwitterCo

ZwitterCo’s breakthrough membrane technology enables filtration for the most challenging separations. The company leverages the remarkable power of zwitterions to create an intensely hydrophilic membrane that resists fouling from organic molecules such as fats, oils, and proteins. The unique properties of their membranes give a pathway to the next generation of water treatment, precision separation, and resource recapture. ZwitterCo has been recognized by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center as a leader in clean water technologies. For more information, visit zwitterco.com.

Vartega Announces New Facility, Increased Capacity, and Funding

Pecos Logistics Park in Denver, CO

Golden, CO – August 16, 2022 – Vartega – a recycler of carbon fiber and composite materials – is expanding its footprint and is increasing production capacity 10X from its current facility in Golden, CO. Vartega’s new 50,000 square foot manufacturing facility and headquarters will be located in Building 2 of the recently completed Pecos Logistics Park (owned by institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives) in Denver, CO.

The facility was selected to meet the growing demand for recycled carbon fiber and Vartega’s EasyFeed carbon fiber bundles used as a low-cost alternative to virgin material for automotive and other industrial applications. With a planned capacity of 2,000 metric tons per year, Vartega will continue to serve its growing customer base in North America as well as address new opportunities in Europe and Asia.

The expansion coincides with a recent capital infusion led by Belle Impact Fund with participation from Autodesk Foundation, Keiretsu Forum, Texas HALO Fund, SWAN Impact Network, New Climate Ventures, HG Ventures, Denver Angels, and other former and new investors. In addition to supporting the new facility and increased capacity, the oversubscribed $5M Series Seed II funds will be used to help grow the Vartega team and support Vartega’s objective to achieve ISO 9001 certification in 2024.

“The Vartega team has worked diligently over the past several years to develop products and processes that solve challenging waste problems,” says Andrew Maxey, CEO of Vartega. “We’re grateful for the considerable trust that our customers and investors have put in us to meet the needs of a changing world. Advanced materials recycling is no longer nice to have, it’s a must have. Our new facility will be a world class manufacturing environment that will allow our team to operate safely and efficiently to deliver a reliable source of high-quality recycled carbon fiber while contributing to our community and providing a meaningful benefit to all our stakeholders.”

A future open house and ribbon cutting will celebrate Vartega’s progress and key partners.

About Vartega

Vartega is making carbon fiber more accessible by solving the world’s toughest advanced materials recycling challenges to create circular supply chains, decarbonize transportation, and enable a sustainable future. Vartega’s carbon fiber and specialty thermoplastics are used in sporting goods, consumer electronics, additive manufacturing, and vehicle lightweighting. Learn more at www.vartega.com.

About J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives

J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives is the alternative investment arm of J.P. Morgan Asset Management. With more than 50 years as an alternatives investment manager, US$218 billion in assets under management and more than 700 professionals (as of March 31, 2022), J.P. Morgan offers strategies across the alternative investment spectrum including real estate, private equity, private credit, hedge funds, infrastructure, transportation, timber and liquid alternatives. Operating from offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, our independent alternative investment engines combine specialist knowledge and singular focus with the global reach, vast resources and powerful infrastructure of J.P. Morgan to help meet each client’s specific objectives. For more information, visit jpmorgan.com/am.

Simplifyber Secures $3.5M Seed Investment to Reinvent How Clothing is Made, with Sustainable, Advanced Manufacturing

Led by fashion designer Maria Intscher-Owrang, company will leverage its additive manufacturing technology to bring economically competitive biodegradable garments to market

NEW YORK, July 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Simplifyber, Inc., creator of the world’s first fully-molded garment and shoe uppers made directly from a cellulose-based liquid, announced today the closing of a $3.5M round of seed funding, led by At One Ventures, with participation from Techstars, Heritage Group Ventures, The Helm, W Fund, Jetstream Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, REFASHIOND Ventures, CapitalX Ventures, Keeler Investments Group and others.

The company has developed a novel approach to clothing and accessory manufacturing that removes traditional spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing and replaces it with a sustainable, less resource-intensive process, and fully biodegradable solution – cutting out 60% of the steps and reducing the 35% of materials in the fashion supply chain that ends up as waste.

“I saw how additive manufacturing (e.g., 3D printing) was disrupting nearly every other industry, but not in fashion. I set out to find the people that could make this a reality,” remarked Simplifyber co-founder and CEO Maria Intscher-Owrang, who led a 20+ year career as a fashion designer and director at leading fashion houses, including Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Edun.

“We discovered a way to create clothing using soft plant fibers,” she explained. “We start with a liquid cellulose – made in a lab, not in a mill – which is then poured on specially-designed molds and dried, eliminating fabric waste altogether and allowing on-demand, stock-free service.”

Simplifyber’s cellulose formula is 100% natural, derived from a combination of wood pulp and other plant-based material and non-toxic additives, so the result is a fully biodegradable product that can be easily returned to nature, recyclable as paper and as clothing.

“With its single-step process for clothing making, Simplifyber has the potential to beat the unit economics of polyester, becoming an economically and environmentally viable solution against plastic waste,” said Laurie Menoud, Partner, At One Ventures. “We’re looking forward to partnering with the team to bring this solution to scale. We believe Simplifyber could be the apparel of the future: They are not only beautifully designed but have a low carbon footprint and are price-accessible, which is a significant differentiation from other sustainable clothing brands.”

With its manufacturing of daily wear items such as T-shirts, Simplifyber aims to replace wovens and knits, which together represent a $25B market globally. Additionally, the company has collaborated on a pilot with HP to create molded shoe uppers, also from a custom formula derived from natural fibers.

 

About Simplifyber

Simplifyber creates the “Apparel of the Future” through its soft, cotton-like biodegradable clothing and footwear that are made by injecting liquid into molds, without the need for cutting, sewing, or weaving; transforming the world’s Apparel and Footwear Industries through its proprietary fully-biodegradable material formula and sustainable additive manufacturing system.

Contact: press@simplifyber.com

SOURCE Simplifyber, Inc.