Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) startup traceless materials secured €36.6 million in a Series A funding round this week. The investors were led by UB FIGG and SWEN CP’s Blue Ocean Fund. traceless materials thus secures funding to expand the production capacities of its innovative biomaterial technology to industrial scale. Yesterday, co-founder and CEO Dr Anne Lamp was also the only representative of a greentech startup to attend the Chemistry Summit, where a joint roadmap for fossil-free transformation was presented. traceless materials is supported by Startup Port @TUHH.
The round was led by private equity fund UB Forest Industry Green Growth Fund (UB FIGG), which invests in sustainable and resource-efficient forest and bio-based industries, and SWEN Blue Ocean, which invests in innovations that help address three existential threats to ocean health: overfishing, pollution and climate change. A local banking syndicate consisting of GLS Bank Hamburg and Hamburger Sparkasse participated in the financing round, as did the company’s three existing investors, green tech investor Planet A, seed investor High-Tech Gründungsfonds (HTGF) and deep tech investor b.value.
Transformation to a circular economy
Plastics not only leave behind the visible traces of global plastic pollution, but also contribute significantly to the climate crisis due to their resource-intensive production from fossil raw materials. As part of a sustainable circular economy, the bioeconomy offers a solution: traceless materials has developed a holistically sustainable material to combat the plastic crisis.
The start-up company produces traceless® materials in granule form that can be further processed using standard technologies in the plastics and packaging industry. This means the material can be used in a wide range of end products – from rigid moulded parts to flexible films, paper coatings or adhesives.
The natural biomaterial traceless® is certified fully bio-based, compostable and free of plastics. By using agricultural residues, valuable biomass resources are conserved. The patent-pending technology is based on natural polymers, contains no potentially harmful chemicals and has a minimal ecological footprint: compared to plastic, 91 percent of CO2 emissions and 89 percent of fossil energy requirements are saved during production and disposal.
Essential contribution to solving plastic pollution
“By scaling our innovative technology, we are showing 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,” said Dr Anne Lamp, CEO and co-founder of traceless. “We are convinced that UB FIGG and SWEN 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.”
In order to implement the innovative 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 tonnes of conventional plastics annually while saving significant amounts of CO2 emissions, fossil resources, water and agricultural land.
traceless convinces
“The traceless approach of using widely available agricultural by-streams to replace fossil plastics and the financial opportunities offered by their solution convinced us both economically and environmentally,” explains Sakari Saarela, partner at UB FIGG. “The traceless team has performed extremely well in terms of material performance, development times and commercialisation of the new material. We look forward to supporting Anne, Johanna and the team as they scale-up this innovative technology.”
“The Blue Ocean Fund aims to invest in startups that provide innovative solutions to the three biggest threats to our oceans: Overfishing, marine pollution and climate change. With plastic pollution being one of the biggest threats to our oceans, we were immediately attracted to traceless. The bio-based and biodegradable material can replace plastics in products that easily end up in the environment and thus in our oceans, such as disposable packaging and hidden plastics in adhesives and paper coatings. traceless is a compelling alternative for applications where reusable solutions are not sustainable and technical recycling is not possible,” reasons Olivier Raybaud, Managing Director of SWEN Capital Partners.
Funding also from the Environmental Innovation Programme
Series A is the second part of the company’s financing strategy to expand production capacities. As already announced, the project is funded with 5,128,401 euros from the Environmental Innovation Programme of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.
Special challenge for industrial production start-ups
“Financing capital-intensive start-ups is still unfamiliar to many investors and banks. This makes it a special challenge for industrial production start-ups like us that are developing the innovative technologies of tomorrow. We are very pleased that with UB FIGG, SWEN Blue Ocean, Planet A, HTGF, b.value and our local bank consortium, we have found partners who share our vision and have recognised and understood the challenges of financing our hardware scale-up. With their support, we will achieve our ambitious goals and make our contribution to solving global plastic pollution,” says Johanna Baare, COO and co-founder of traceless.
traceless paves the way for the green transformation of industry
Anne Lamp took the bold step of founding traceless in 2020, together with Johanna Baare, a trained economist. “For me, founding a start-up meant a certain change,” she noted at the time: “I had to take off my purely scientific glasses and suddenly think economically as well.” Startup Port provided advice, and the first financial start-up assistance came from Hamburg Innovation’s “Calls for Transfer” funding programme. The traceless team, which now has around 40 members, has set itself the goal of replacing plastics in large quantities by demonstrating for the first time that the innovative process can be implemented on an industrial scale. Parallel to the technology scale-up, the continuously growing company is developing pilot products made of traceless® materials together with customers and partners.
Due to its innovative solution, the company is funded by the EU as part of the EIC Accelerator. In addition, the company has already received several awards, including the German Founder’s Prize and the German Sustainability Award/Next Economy Award.
traceless offers a solution to global plastic pollution and the associated climate change, resource scarcity and biodiversity loss. This makes traceless a pioneer for the green transformation of industry.
Future summit instead of crisis summit: A new roadmap for the chemical industry
Yesterday, co-founder and CEO Anne Lamp was the only representative of a greentech startup to attend the chemical summit at the German Chancellery, where a joint roadmap for fossil-free transformation was presented. The goal was to counter the doom and gloom that prevails in the traditionally fossil-based and energy-intensive chemical industry with a positive perspective for the future. Because there are solutions: A joint position paper was drafted, advocating for a fossil-free transformation, regenerative and efficient solutions and a real strategy for the future. Behind the declaration is an alliance of almost 30 innovative actors of the circular economy, from different areas of the circular value chain, initiated at short notice. Details can be found in the jointly published eight-page position paper.
More information on the founding story of traceless materials via Startup Stories
UB FOREST INDUSTRY GREEN GROWTH FUND UB FIGG is a private equity fund that invests in companies focused on the replacement of plastics and other fossil fuel-based materials, the higher-value and more efficient use of wood and agricultural feedstock side streams, and the increased use of these feedstocks in a wide range of intermediate and end uses. Through its investments, the Fund will support the forestry and timber sector in developing solutions to mitigate climate change. UB FIGG is a signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management and reports on the environmental and climate impacts of its investments.
SWEN BLUE OCEAN CAPITAL PARTNERS is one of the leading providers of responsible private equity investments in Europe, with more than €7.7 billion in assets under management, and offers a wide range of investment programmes for institutional and private clients. Since 2012, the fund company has integrated ESG criteria into its overall asset management and has implemented a climate strategy since 2017. In 2021, it strengthened its actions for more equitable and sustainable growth with the launch of Blue Ocean. SWEN Capital Partners is owned by OFI Invest Group, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and part of its team. Since January 2022, SWEN Capital Partners has been a co-partner of the NEC initiative, which has developed a methodology that enables socio-economic actors to measure their contribution to environmental change in order to achieve a common goal: building a responsible and sustainable economy.
