Circularise secures €11m in funding from Brightlands Venture Partners, Asahi Kasei, Neste, 4impact and others

‍THE HAGUE, Netherlands, 17 November 2022 - Today, digital product passports and mass balance bookkeeping software provider Circularise announces that it secured €11 million in funding as part of its Series A round that will be used to advance its mission to bring a circular economy to industrial supply chains. This capital injection was led by Brightlands Venture Partners joined by industry players Asahi Kasei, Neste, as well as existing investor 4impact capital and is supplemented with grants from the European Commission. 

The company's mission is to support the shift from a linear to a circular economy. With its blockchain-based digital product passports, Circularise enables customers to improve resource use, verify provenance, conduct carbon footprint and impact assessments across supply chains. This is especially relevant in complex supply chains such as those of chemicals, plastics, metals, and critical raw materials, but also automotive, electronics, packaging or construction. 

Additionally, the company recently launched MassBalancer, its solution for mass balance bookkeeping, in order to support the shift from fossil feedstocks to sustainable alternatives in the plastic and chemicals industry. 

Circularise’s co-founder Jordi de Vos says: “We’re happy to welcome Brightlands Venture Partners, 4impact, Neste and Asahi Kasei as our investors. Our mission has always been clear: accelerating the shift towards a circular economy through supply chain traceability and transparency. This funding round enables us to scale our business operations, product, R&D as well as to expand our international team. It will not only accelerate our growth as a leading software provider for supply chain traceability, but also support the transition to a circular economy on a global scale.”

Circularise was founded in 2016 by Mesbah Sabur and Jordi de Vos at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Over the last six years, with the support of the EIT Raw Materials, the European Commission, angel investors, and now VC’s, the company grew to 40 people, expanded to international markets such as Japan, joined the collaborative ecosystem Catena-X to strengthen a secure data exchange in the automotive industry and partnered with multinational companies including Asahi Kasei, Covestro, Domo Chemicals, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Neste, LyondellBasell, Philips Domestic Appliances, Porsche, Trinseo.

What separates Circularise from other players in the digital product passports market is its focus on helping suppliers to share sensitive data, like material composition, environmental footprint or LCA data, without risking privacy and confidentiality. It achieves this with its patent pending Smart Questioning technology, which allows suppliers to be in control of which data they want to share. 

By extension, Circularise helps brands and OEM’s to get visibility into their own Scope 3 emissions and other metrics, enabling  them to improve sustainability, compliance, and meet customer demand and regulatory requirements around Digital Product Passports, the SEC’s proposed climate risk disclosure rules, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. 

Unlike its competitors Circularise’s software uses a public blockchain instead of a private one which enables an unparalleled level of verification of correctness of data - and therefore trust - while maintaining data privacy and preventing high energy consumption.

“Brightlands Venture Partners is excited to lead this Series A round with such a strong consortium of VC’s and industry players. The Circularise team truly understands the challenge of bringing transparency to complex supply chains in the chemical industry and has developed a unique portfolio of tools to enable and facilitate this transition. We believe that combining the unique skill set of the Circularise team with the deep sector expertise of Brightlands Venture Partners will allow Circularise to accelerate in bringing supply chain transparency to the chemical industry” says Mary McCarthy, Partner at Brightlands Venture Partners.

The Circularise team is and continues to be the leader in blockchain for sustainability and traceability.  4impact has been an early investor and supporter and we are thrilled to continue on our joint journey towards a circular economy. Circularise’s proprietary technology coupled with the team’s expertise and unwavering commitment will enable complex value chains to be reformed to more environmentally friendly and cost-effective ways.”, Ali Najafbagy, Managing Partner and co-founder of 4impact capital.

The agreement about capital injection has been signed, and the completion of the investment is subject to customary closing conditions

Find quotes from the other investors here.

Together with partners, Neste leads the way in accelerating the transition towards more sustainable solutions for polymers and chemicals. There is an urgent need for new scalable, end-to-end digital solutions to trace renewable and recycled material flows, providing increased transparency along the value chains. Circularise provides novel solutions for this need, and we are excited to support them in speeding up the critical transition to circular solutions''

‍Lars Peter Lindfors, Neste’s Senior Vice President, Innovation

Through collaboration with Circularise, we, Asahi Kasei, expect to contribute to building a transparent supply chain as a supplier’s responsibility and shift to a circular economy by promoting utilisation of products made from biomass and recycled raw materials.”

‍Takashi Morishita, President of CVC at Asahi Kasei

___

About Circularise

Circularise is a digital product passports and mass balance bookkeeping software provider founded in The Netherlands in 2016. Circularise’s software system helps suppliers in chemicals, plastics, battery materials, metals, and other industries to trace materials and share their environmental footprint without risking their sensitive data. By extension, it helps brands to get visibility into their own Scope 3 emissions and other metrics, which is aligned with the regulatory push around Digital Product Passports, the SEC’s proposed climate risk disclosure rules, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. 

For access to updates about Circularise, subscribe to notifications from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/circularise   

Press contact: press@circularise.com

About Brightlands Venture Partners 

Brightlands Venture Partners (BVP) is the fund manager of BVP Renewable Chemistry Fund and is a so-called ecosystem investor. BVP invests in companies benefiting from and contributing to the Brightlands campuses in the Netherlands. Other funds under management are Chemelot Ventures, Brightlands Agrifood Fund and Limburg Ventures. Together the funds have made over 46 investments. BVP Renewable Chemistry Fund is co-funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).  

Read more: www.brightlandsventurepartners.com

About 4impact capital

4impact capital (4impact) is a leading impact investor in groundbreaking, early-stage digital startups in Europe. 4impact backs passionate founders who accelerate the transition to a sustainable world and drive meaningful and measurable change under one of its SDG-aligned investment pillars of environment, inclusion and health and well-being. 

Read more: www.4impact.vc

About Neste 

Neste (NESTE, Nasdaq Helsinki) creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. We refine waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. We are the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel and developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. We aim at helping customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with our renewable and circular solutions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030. Our ambition is to make the Porvoo oil refinery in Finland the most sustainable refinery in Europe by 2030. We are introducing renewable and recycled raw materials such as liquefied waste plastic as refinery raw materials. We have committed to reaching carbon-neutral production by 2035, and we will reduce the carbon emission intensity of sold products by 50% by 2040. We also have set high standards for biodiversity, human rights and supply chain. We have consistently been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies. In 2021, Neste's revenue stood at EUR 15.1 billion. Read more: neste.com https://www.neste.com/

Press contact: Please contact Neste's media service, tel. +358 800 94025 / media@neste.com (weekdays from 8.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. EET).

About the Asahi Kasei Corporation

The Asahi Kasei Group contributes to life and living for people around the world. Since its foundation in 1922 with ammonia and cellulose fiber businesses, Asahi Kasei has consistently grown through the proactive transformation of its business portfolio to meet the evolving needs of every age. With more than 46,000 employees around the world, the company contributes to a sustainable society by providing solutions to the world's challenges through its three business sectors of Material, Homes, and Health Care. Its Materials sector, comprised of Environmental Solutions, Mobility & Industrial, and Life Innovation, includes a wide array of products from battery separators and biodegradable textiles to engineering plastics and sound solutions.

For more information, visit www.asahi-kasei.com.