News & Resources | 2021

Circulate Capital Increases its Commitment to Indonesia Plastic Pollution Prevention with New Investment into Reciki

December 14, 2021

Singapore, 14 December 2021: Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management firm that finances innovations, companies, and infrastructure to prevent ocean plastic and climate change by advancing the circular economy, today announced that the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) is investing in Reciki Solusi Indonesia (Reciki), one of Indonesia’s leading privately-owned waste management companies.

Established in 2019 as a home-grown solution to waste management that meets specific needs of Indonesian cities, Reciki’s vision is to achieve a zero-waste-to-landfill ambition through its industry-leading material recovery facilities (MRFs). Reciki sorts waste collected from household and commercial businesses, and recovers recyclable materials, including plastic, for the recycling value chain. Reciki’s success is based on its ability to tailor to the needs of local municipalities and enable higher levels of recovery. Thanks to the support of its pioneer partner, Danone AQUA, the company currently operates two MRFs, one in Lamongan (East Java) and another one in Badung (Bali).

Addressing the inefficiencies and capacity constraints of local landfills, Reciki’s model offers the potential for significantly increasing the volumes of waste recycled. Moreover, Reciki’s model is uniquely scalable for Indonesia, where a templated model cannot adequately address the specificities of individual cities. Reciki fully tailors its approach in individual cities to develop targeted sorting and distribution solutions that take into account details such as waste characterization, existing infrastructure and household profiles.

Through the investment made by CCOF, Reciki plans to set up several more facilities across Indonesia, with the ambition to process more than 1,000 tonnes of waste per day. This will replicate Reciki’s highly efficient system that processes at least six times more waste than similar services on the market in 2020. Furthermore, Reciki’s expansion is expected to support the creation of over 400 safe, stable, and dignified jobs within the formal sector, paving the way for the formalization of informal sector workers.

Rob Kaplan, Founder and CEO from Circulate Capital, said, “We believe Reciki will drive real impact and help Indonesia achieve its leadership ambition in plastic pollution prevention. Reciki’s fit-for-purpose model, which allows for greater and faster processing of waste, has the potential to significantly scale the recovery and recycling of plastics nationally. In partnership with the Reciki team and Danone AQUA, our co-investor, we believe Reciki can put our capital to work and accelerate becoming a best-in-class solution provider for many cities across Indonesia.”

“And, we look forward to opportunities for our network of investors in CCOF, which include PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Chanel, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips Chemical and Mondelēz International, to provide Reciki with technical and procurement expertise, as well as access to a global supply chain for even greater impact on the circular economy for plastics.”

Currently, 36% of all plastic waste is managed by open burning, which contributes to 91% of the country’s total carbon footprint of plastic waste. The funding will help Reciki to expand its current 1 capacity and achieve strong environmental impact, which could result in the prevention of 400,000 tonnes of plastic pollution leakage, avoiding over 700,000 tonnes CO2e greenhouse gas emissions and managing almost 3 million tonnes of waste over a 10-year period.

Reciki’s model maximizes resources by working closely with local collection partners, resulting in cost reduction and retention of local players and jobs. It recovers and distributes almost all materials: high-value plastics, low-value plastics, organic waste and other recyclables, to achieve effective management of waste streams that advance plastics circularity.

Bhima Aries Diyanto, CEO and Founder, Reciki, said, “We look forward to partnering with Circulate Capital to grow and scale our operations to meet the urgent demand for effective, environmentally-friendly waste management. We believe our bespoke solution can transform Indonesia’s waste management industry, alleviate the country’s plastic pollution crisis, and deliver greater value from used materials — in a way that empowers local communities to be part of the solution.”

The loan made to Reciki is partially backed by the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), further de-risking the investment and demonstrating blended finance in action.

According to DFC Vice President of Development Credit, Jim Polan, “Circulate Capital Ocean Fund’s investment in Reciki is precisely the type of private investment that the DFC is interested in catalyzing. Our partnership with the Ocean Fund allows Reciki to demonstrate the profitability of a scalable business model that benefits both the environment and the economy in Indonesia and beyond. This investment will create almost 400 safe and stable jobs while at the same time preventing plastic waste from reaching the ocean and avoiding carbon emissions into the atmosphere.”

Circulate Capital Invests in ACE Green Recycling to Leverage Clean Battery Recycling Technology and Build Circular Plastic Market

December 8, 2021

Singapore, December 8, 2021: Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management firm that finances innovations, companies, and infrastructure to prevent ocean plastic and climate change and advance the circular economy, today announced that the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) has invested in ACE Green Recycling, a pioneering clean tech firm specializing in battery recycling.

ACE Green Recycling is a global battery recycling technology company that has built the world’s only commercialized recycling process for used lead acid batteries (ULAB) that releases no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Batteries are found in all automobiles, renewable energy storage and telecom applications and are one of the most recycled items globally.

ACE’s proprietary technology can recycle ULAB at room temperature in place of very high temperature conventional smelting, is more cost efficient, releases zero GHG emissions, reduces solid waste by 80%, and mitigates toxic lead pollution.

As all ULABs are contained in polypropylene (PP) cases, ACE’s world-class solution prevents plastic leakage by formalizing the closed-loop recycling process and fully recovering the PP casings to produce new batteries. ACE expects to collect and recycle more than 36,000 tonnes of PP by 2026, thus advancing plastics circularity.

The investment by CCOF will accelerate the development of PP recycling markets by leveraging ACE’s infrastructure and expanding PP recycling beyond battery sources to target packaging and post-consumer waste streams.

Rob Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Circulate Capital, said, “Car batteries are a hidden contributor to plastic pollution as so many are recycled in ways where the plastic cases are burned, dumped or informally recycled, posing serious environmental and health costs to local communities. With this investment, we hope to accelerate the deployment of ACE’s technology and strong supply chain expertise across Southeast Asia to advance the polypropylene recycling market and disrupt the soon-to-be US$ 40 billion battery recycling industry while creating financial, environmental and social value”.

“For Circulate Capital, we are excited to work with ACE to expand its recycling capabilities to tackle non-battery, post-consumer sources of PP waste, a massively underdeveloped opportunity in Southeast Asia. ACE will explore leveraging its infrastructure to process around 1,500 tonnes of post-consumer PP packaging a year from third parties and increase this gradually to 6,000 tonnes a year over the next three to four years.”

The company is looking to rapidly scale its business by setting up 10-15 new recycling facilities, licensing improved technology to existing players, and partnering with them worldwide, including in Southeast Asia. This expansion is expected to increase ACE’s total battery processing capacity to 0.5 million tonnes in five years.

Over a 10-year period, the venture aims to prevent around 300,000 tonnes of plastic from entering the ocean, while also creating 1000 new jobs and reducing pollution from conventional smelting processes.

Looking into the future, where global electrification initiatives are ramping up demand and usage of batteries, ACE aims to be at the forefront of making this drive climate positive. The company is also setting up a commercial-pilot facility to recycle lithium-ion batteries utilizing a low temperature hydrometallurgy technology.

Nishchay Chadha, CEO and Founder, ACE Green Recycling, said, “We are proud to partner with Circulate Capital to bring our best-in-class battery recycling and supply chain solutions to commercial scale, and establish ourselves as a global battery recycling player. As our battery recycling infrastructure enables complementary plastic recycling, we are confident that, with Circulate Capital’s help, we can optimize our process, and expand our networks and expertise to further advance the recycling plastics market. We aim to substantially contribute to making battery recycling sustainable and preventing dangerous pollution to local communities.”

Vipin Tyagi, CTO and Co-Founder, ACE Green Recycling said, “ACE has disrupted the lead recycling industry via electrification of lead metal extraction from ULABs and is rapidly progressing to solve the lithium-ion battery recycling issues. Our technology is a game changer which presents an incredible opportunity for the recycling industry to economically recycle batteries without causing environmental damage – with Circulate Capital’s support we are poised to capture this opportunity.”

Beyond preventing carbon emissions and advancing the circular economy for plastics and battery metals, ACE Green Recycling’s proprietary battery recycling technology expects to prevent more than 300,000 tonnes of lead-containing slag from entering landfills each year by 2026. Circulate Capital was created in collaboration with Ocean Conservancy, and its founding investors include PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Chanel, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, and Mondelēz International

Circulate Capital Announces Second Close for Climate Tech Fund and  Inaugural Investments in Three US-based Tech Innovators

December 7, 2021

Singapore, December 7, 2021: Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management firm financing high-growth opportunities at the nexus of climate-tech and plastics, recycling and the circular economy, announced today a second close of its climate tech fund, Circulate Capital Disrupt (CCD), bringing the strategy’s total AUM to $25 million. The firm also announced it has made three inaugural investments for CCD in U.S.-based innovators that implement solutions in the sustainable fashion, biotechnologies and smart materials sectors to combat plastic waste and climate change, while accelerating the transition towards a circular economy.

In June 2021, Circulate Capital announced a first close of CCD, a companion strategy to the $106 million Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF I), to invest in targeted innovations in materials and deep technology solutions to advance the circular economy. CCD also participates in select, high-growth investment opportunities via CCOF I across the recycling value chain in South and Southeast Asia that prevent plastic pollution and have a climate impact. CCD is backed by international private investors including Builders Vision; Benjamin Duncan Group (UHNW Family Office); Circocean Ltd; DF Impact Capital; Eden Impact; Huang Chen Foundation; Minderoo Foundation; Rumah Group and Twynam Investments Ltd.

CCD’s first investments — Arzeda, Circ (pre-B round), and Phase Change Solutions—represent some of today’s most cutting-edge innovations that are disrupting a cross-section of supply chains and have proven technologies and ambitions to expand into Asia where there is strong potential for financial, environmental, and social returns. The companies are:

• Arzeda – the Washington-based industry-leading Protein Design Company™ that revolutionizes protein engineering through computational biology methods to develop the materials of tomorrow, including sustainable monomers. Arzeda combines physics-based computational protein design, machine learning and lab automation to expand the reach of biotechnology. Its proteins can produce new bio-based chemistry to develop sustainable products for the textiles, food & nutrition, and pharma industries globally. Arzeda for instance recently partnered with Unilever to design new enzymes with superior sustainability and performance benefits for cleaning and laundry products.
• Circ – a Virginia-based advanced recycling technology innovator with patented technology that returns clothes to the raw materials from which they were made. Circ’s technology is uniquely capable of separating and recovering mixed-textiles, specifically any blend of polyester and cotton, which accounts for most fabrics manufactured. Circ is reducing the need and demand for natural resources and building a truly circular textile economy for the fashion industry.
• Phase Change Solutions – a North Carolina-based global leader in manufacturing bio-based phase change materials that stabilize temperatures across a wide range of applications. These temperature control and energy-efficient solutions have lower carbon footprints and more circular end-of-use fates than petroleum-based competitors. Customers across transportation of perishables and pharmaceuticals, cold chains, buildings and structures, and data centers – use BioPCM® to maintain optimum temperatures, reduce food and packaging waste, save energy, and reach their sustainability goals.

“Our first three investments for Circulate Capital Disrupt are all at the forefront of climate tech and circular innovation. They offer unique, scalable and disruptive technologies transforming the global plastics and recycling supply chain while offering the potential for competitive financial returns,” said Rob Kaplan, CEO and Founder, Circulate Capital. “Ultimately, this will help us accelerate the development of a circular economy for plastic waste globally, with a focus in emerging markets like South and Southeast Asia where most of the plastic waste leaks into the world’s oceans.”

“COP26 and the most recent United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report underscored the urgency for moving capital towards solutions that can help mitigate the devastating effects from climate change. By catalyzing more capital to scale solutions at the nexus of climate tech and circular plastics, we are seeking to put investment dollars to work to alleviate the ‘code-red status’ of our planet and stem the tide of the global plastic and climate crises,” Kaplan added.

Last month, Circulate Capital added Mondelez International as an LP for their Circulate Capital Ocean Fund. The announcement can be found here.

Circulate Capital Disrupt leverages the power of the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund – including impact measurement and inclusion of a gender lens. RPCK Rastegar Panchal served as legal counsel to the investments announced today by Circulate Capital.

Mondelez International Invests in Circulate Capital’s Ocean Fund to Advance Global Efforts in Plastic Waste Collection and Recycling

November 11, 2021

Mondelēz International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ) today advanced its commitment to helping create a circular economy for plastic by joining Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) as a limited partner and making an investment in CCOF supporting scalable business solutions to help develop infrastructure for the collecting, sorting and recycling of plastic waste, including flexible films. The goal of this investment, which is part of Mondelēz International’s Sustainable Futures impact investing platform, is to enhance focus on the physical collection of flexible films – lightweight, multi-layer plastics used by the snacking industry – that have traditionally been more difficult to collect, sort, recycle and ultimately reuse.

IDB Lab partners with Circulate Capital to combat ocean-bound plastics in Latin America and the Caribbean

October 25, 2021

October 25, 2021 – The innovation lab for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, IDB Lab, announces a USD$4 million investment commitment, along with an additional technical cooperation grant of $500,000, to support innovative solutions to tackle the growing problem of plastic waste ending up in the oceans and waterways of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

This circular economy investment will be combined with a capacity development program specifically for the Caribbean region, that would enhance the building of a potential investment pipeline in the Caribbean, through the support of regional innovation ecosystem actors.

The investment will be managed by Circulate Capital, the investment management company focused on preventing ocean plastic and advancing the circular economy which has also managed the US$106 million Circulate Capital Ocean Fund targeted to prevent ocean plastic in South and Southeast Asia since 2019 and has been backed by leading global corporations including PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Chanel, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC.

There are an estimated 150 million tons of plastic in the ocean today, growing by approximately 8 to 11 million tons a year, which is equivalent to a garbage truck of plastic unloading in the sea every minute.

A significant amount of plastic waste pollution leaks from the LAC region due to a lack of circular recycling systems, capital, and technical assistance in the sector. LAC generated 12% of the total global waste, just below East Asia and the Pacific, with ten of the top thirty global plastic polluters per capita hailing from the Caribbean region. However, only 4.5 percent of the waste was recycled, significantly below the world average of 13.5 percent.

“IDB Lab is honored to be a pioneer in committing capital to finance innovations that help to reduce plastic waste in the region through early-stage startups and SMEs. This initiative is an example of how IDB Lab can work together with the private sector to leverage funding from corporates to contribute to SDGs, emissions reductions, the circular economy, and a green recovery”, said Irene Arias-Hofman, CEO of IDB Lab.

The strategy will be focusing on investing primarily in early-stage start-ups and SMEs (Series A and B), promoting a plastic circular economy, and catalyzing investment from institutional investors at scale. The target is to fund systemic solutions that rethink and manage waste. The idea is to invest capital into companies that develop scalable solutions from innovative materials, reducing waste, to waste management infrastructure, such as collection, sorting, processing, recycling, and manufacturing.

“Leveraging the learnings of our work in South and Southeast Asia, we’re excited to partner with IDB Lab to catalyze capital to fight plastic pollution and advance the circular economy in Latin America and the Caribbean”, said Rob Kaplan, founder and CEO of Circulate Capital.

Beyond financing, the portfolio companies will get strategic support through strategic partnerships; training to improve communications, marketing, and sales, and skills development, including digitization efforts. Collectively, this support will establish a higher standard of operations, as well as provide a robust mechanism for measuring impact.

Srichakra Polyplast Commissions India’s First Food-Grade Plastic Recycling Facility

September 24, 2021

US$10 Million invested in world-class technology to upgrade and expand recycling capabilities

Srichakra Polyplast (Srichakra), a leading plastic recycling and waste management company, today announced the official commissioning of its upgraded facility, the first of its kind in India to produce food-grade quality recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pellets. The company has also commissioned its new polyolefins recycling facility which can produce deodorized bottle-to-bottle grade quality polyolefin pellets. The company has invested more than US$10 million to strengthen its recycling capabilities, which allow it to offer the highest grade of recycled plastic to customers in India and global markets such as Europe and the United States.

Circulate Capital Announces First Close of New Climate Tech Fund

June 22, 2021

Circulate Capital Disrupt will Invest in Innovations in Materials and Deep Technology Solutions to Combat Plastic Waste and Advance the Circular Economy

Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management firm financing high growth opportunities at the nexus of climate-tech and plastics, recycling and the circular economy, today announced a $14 million first close of its new venture capital fund. Circulate Capital Disrupt (CCD), a companion strategy to the $106 million Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF I) launched in October 2019, will invest in targeted innovations in materials and deep technology solutions to combat plastic waste and advance the circular economy. In addition, CCD will participate in select, high growth investment opportunities across the waste management and recycling value chain in South and Southeast Asia alongside CCOF I that prevent plastic pollution by the tons and have a climate impact.