Notpla, A London-based sustainable packaging company, has raised £10m in series A funding to develop biodegradable packaging made from seaweed. The round was led by Bangkok-based Horizons Ventures, with seed-round investors including Astanor Ventures, Lupa Systems and Torch Capital continuing to add Capital. "They are disrupting the packaging industry with seaweed as a raw material," says Wayne Cheng, portfolio leader at Horizons Investments.
The word Notpla comes from Not Plastic, meaning "Not Plastic". The company was founded in 2014 by two alumni from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre-Yves Paslier. The company aims to make packaging "naturally disappear" and replace plastic by producing an edible, fully biodegradable packaging based on seaweed.
The funding will be used to expand production capacity and research and development of new products, including a transparent elastic film and seaweed paper.
The membrane bags cover multiple applications: in addition to replacing single-use plastics in food packaging (such as pasta, drinks and pre-dispensers such as seasonings), they can also be used in packaging cleaning products such as detergents. Seaweed paper, on the other hand, is made from a by-product of an industrial process -- it uses 30 percent less wood pulp than traditional paper. This not only reduces pressure on forests, but also reduces waste in the seaweed supply chain.
Single-use plastics are one of the main causes of global environmental pollution.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, only 9 percent of plastic waste is recycled, 12 percent is incinerated, and the remaining 79 percent either accumulates in landfills or in the environment. According to a recent Report from the World Economic Forum, the World produces 300 million tons of plastic a year, half of which goes into single-use items: takeaway cups, food wrappers, grocery wrappers and so on. In addition, eight million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, and it can take decades to break down. "If we do not act, this figure is projected to increase to 17 million tons per year by 2025."
