Stuttgart, Germany-based Cyclize, a climate-tech startup, announced on Wednesday that it has secured €4.75M in a fresh funding round led by UVC Partners.
Other investors, including High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Aurum Impact, and UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators, as well as high-profile business angels like Dr. Klaus Schäfer, former CTO of Covestro, who will also join Cyclize’s Advisory Board, participated in the funding round.
The German company will use the funds to expand its team and focus on scaling its technology for industrial use. They plan to test synthesis gas production and waste recycling with pilot customers.
The company aims to commercialise and build a waste-to-synthesis gas plant in a chemical park.
Cyclize: Defossilising the chemical industry
Founded as a spin-off from the University of Stuttgart, Cyclize has developed a technology to defossilise the chemical industry using mixed plastic waste and CO2 as raw materials to produce synthesis gas (a gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen).
Synthesis gas is a crucial component for producing advanced chemicals, plastics, methanol, hydrogen, and e-fuels.
Traditionally, this gas has been obtained using natural gas, a fossil fuel.
However, a new plasma-based process is now being used to obtain synthesis gas from waste materials.
This innovative process makes it possible to achieve a circular carbon economy, avoiding hundreds of megatons of CO2 emissions every year by 2050.
“With our process, we send a significant signal for climate-neutral chemistry. Our patented Cyclize Process enables chemical companies to remain competitive despite rising energy costs in Europe. Cyclize Plasma is not just the future of the chemical industry – it is an enabler for the circular economy: Turning plastic waste into a valuable raw material with monetary value,” says Maike Lambarth, co-founder and CEO of Cyclize.
As a result, Cyclize provides a low-threshold transformation in the chemical industry.
They replace only the initial step of a long value chain by offering synthesis gas that can substitute fossil sources. It means that existing process plants can continue to be used, thus keeping production costs low.
Cyclize has already attracted significant interest from industry and politics. Since May 2022, the spin-off from the University of Stuttgart has been supported by the EXIST Research Transfer program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
The investor
UVC Partners is a Munich- and Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in European B2B tech startups from pre-seed to series A. With about €400M in assets under management, UVC Partners typically invests between €500,000 and €10M initially and up to €30M per company.
The VC’s portfolio includes category leaders in deep tech, climate tech, hard- and software, and mobility with various technologies and business models.
Lead investor Amanda Birkenholz knows: “Cyclize’s technology solves two problems of our civilization. Currently, only nine per cent of globally produced plastic is recycled. The remainder is not further utilised and ends up in continuously growing landfills. However, the energy contained therein can be significantly used by Cyclize for the reforming process, simultaneously reducing electricity demand and operational costs significantly. Especially considering the current energy price policy, companies can secure a decisive advantage with Cyclize, utilizing a resource that has been scarcely used so far.”
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