Healix, a Dutch clean-tech startup that aims to solve the plastic problem, secured funds totalling over €10M in its seed financing round led by private equity firm Active Capital Company and facilitated by ABN AMRO Asset Based Finance and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (“RVO”).
Other investors, including high-performance fibre supplier FibrXL and Tama, the market leader in crop baling solutions, also participated.
Marcel Alberts, the founder of Healix and chief executive, says: “I am really happy to welcome our new investors and I am grateful for the support from ABN AMRO and the Dutch government. These investments enable us to proceed at full speed with the commissioning of our production facility and the recruitment of the skilled professionals needed to take our flagship project forward.”
Investors: What you need to know
Based out of Amsterdam, Active Capital Company invests in small- and medium-sized companies with revenues between €5M – €80M, which are active in industrial goods & services and (technical) wholesale. Besides capital, the company also offers operational and financial expertise, contributing to the sustainability and growth of the companies.
FibrXL, a portfolio company of Active Capital Company, is a converter and distributor of High-Performance Fibers, such as Dyneema, Twaron, Technora, Vectran, and Zylon and distributor of industrial yarns such as Polyester, Polyamide, and Viscose in Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Jeroen Drenth, CEO of FibrXL states “For us, this is much more than an investment. This is a pathway to change the environmental impact of the technical textile industry, as it provides a technology solution that makes fibre-to-fibre recycling possible. And most importantly: this is only the beginning!”
How was Healix born?
Founded by Marcel Alberts, Healix is a clean-tech startup that aims to combat plastic pollution by transforming existing linear economies in the technical textile industry into sustainable circular economies.
As Managing Director FibrXL, Marcel organised a hackathon named Project Helix to tackle challenges related to sustainability and circularity in the technical textile and fibre industry.
This event sparked the idea to create a new startup called Healix.
The company transforms used ropes, twines, nets, and other technical textiles into pristine circular polymers for the global manufacturing chain.
New factory in Maastricht
Earlier this year, the company announced that it will build a factory in Maastricht, the Netherlands to shred, wash and reprocess used twines, ropes, nets, and other plastic fibre waste from farming and fishing into pristine circular polymers for the global manufacturing supply chain.
The production facility is expected to be operational in Q1 2022 with an annual capacity of 6,000 metric tons of polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE), saving almost 10,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.