Hamburg-based traceless materials, a circular bioeconomy startup that offers a sustainable alternative material to conventional (bio)plastics, announced that it has secured €36.6M in a Series A round of funding.
The Series A funding is part of traceless’ strategy to expand production capacities for sustainable materials. It supplements earlier funding from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, totalling nearly €5M, aimed at supporting the project through the Environmental Innovation Programme.
Investors supporting traceless
The investment was led by UB Forest Industry Green Growth Fund, with additional support from SWEN CP’s Blue Ocean fund and local banks GLS Bank, Hamburg, and Hamburger Sparkasse.
Existing investors Planet A Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and deep tech investor b.value also participated.
Sakari Saarela, Partner at UB FIGG says, “traceless’ approach to use widely available agricultural side streams to replace fossil-based plastic and the financial opportunity their solution proposes convinced us both economically and ecologically.”
“The traceless team has achieved extremely strong results in terms of material performance, development times and commercialisation of the new material. We are looking forward to accompanying Anne, Johanna and the team in the scale up of this innovative technology.”
Capital utilisation
According to traceless, the funding will enable the company to scale up its operations effectively.
“Through scaling our innovative technology, we prove that a climate-friendly, circular, resilient and regenerative industry is possible. With our novel biomaterial, we can make a significant contribution to solving plastic pollution,” says, Anne Lamp, co-founder & CEO of traceless.
“We are convinced that UB FIGG and SWEN’s Blue Ocean fund are a great addition to our shareholders as they have relevant knowledge in our industry. The fact that both our investors and the banks fully support our mission was a decisive criterion for us.”
Johanna Baare, co-founder & COO of traceless adds, “Financing capital-intensive startups is still unfamiliar to many investors and banks. This makes it a special challenge for industrial manufacturing startups like us that are developing the innovative technologies of tomorrow.”
“We are very pleased that with UB FIGG, SWEN CP, Planet A, HTGF, b.value our local bank consortium we have found partners who share our vision and have recognised and understood the challenges of financing our hardware scaleup. With their support, we are going to reach our ambitious goals to make our contribution to solve global plastic pollution!”
Materials designed for nature
Founded in 2020 by Dr. Anne Lamp and Johanna Baare, traceless is dedicated to creating a regenerative, eco-friendly economy and eliminating plastic pollution.
The company utilises innovative technology to convert agricultural leftovers into natural biomaterials that are bio-based, home compostable, plastic-free, and environmentally friendly.
According to traceless, this technology significantly reduces CO2 emissions and fossil energy requirements by 91 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively, compared to traditional plastics, promoting a circular and environmentally conscious bioeconomy.
In order to implement the technology on an industrial scale for the first time, traceless is building a demonstration plant in Hamburg.
With this production plant, the company will replace several thousand tons of conventional plastic annually and at the same time save a significant amount of CO2 emissions, fossil resources, water, and agricultural land.
traceless produces traceless materials in granulate form, making it compatible with standard technologies commonly used in the plastics and packaging industry. This allows the material to be incorporated into a wide variety of end products, including rigid molded parts, flexible films, paper coatings, and adhesives, facilitating its adoption across various industries and applications.
