France-based Ecoat raises €10M to provide eco-friendly alternatives to coating industry

Grasse, France-based Ecoat, an industrial scale-up in bio-based polymers for the coatings industry, announced on Tuesday, February 14, that it has raised €10M in a funding round led by Smalt Capital and 123 IM.

Banks and regional organisations, including Bpifrance, Banque Populaire Méditeranée, BNP Paribas, Crédit Coopératif, Caisse d’Epargne CEPAC, Caisse d’Epargne Côte d’Azur and Region Sud Investissement, also participated in the round. 

Crowdfunding platform Lendosphere raised €1M from 718 private investors for Ecoat. In addition to these funding, Ecoat also gets financing through the French Recovery Plan Industry 2030. 

The French firm says it will use the funds to expand its production capacity. The new production line will remain on the chemical cluster OSIRIS located close to Péage de Roussillon (38), France.

Ecoat: Making coating industry sustainable

Founded in 2011, Ecoat develops, manufactures, and sells bio-based polymers based on renewable resources to the coatings industry.

The company provides alternative low-carbon approaches to coatings designs based on green chemistry, thereby replacing fossil-based technologies.

Ecoat does this by using its low carbon products but also its “SWITCHER” service which is an eco-design for low Carbon paint formulation and Life Cycle analysis service carried out by Ecoat’s team. 

In 2022, the company claims to have avoided 600T eq.CO2 emissions as a whole.

The Investors

Smalt Capital is a private equity management company, investing in the southern region of France for more than 20 years. 

Affiliated to Caisse d’Epargne CEPAC since 2019, Smalt Capital invests in equity and debt at all development stages as a minority shareholder.

Since its inception, Smalt Capital has invested in more than 400 companies in France and abroad.

123 Investment Managers is an independent management company specialising in equity investment.

Since its inception in 2001, 123 IM has invested €2.5B in supporting more than 500 entrepreneurs. 

According to 123 Investment Managers, the investment rate is currently 200M€/year for 200 mid-size French companies.