Italian rubber recycler Rubber Conversion says it has closed a EUR2.5 million financing round. The start-up that is active in rubber recycling, spanning pre and postconsumer scrap says it will use the funds to expand its processing capacity and enter new geographic markets.
Financial backers in the new round include Rome-based CDP Venture Capital SGR through its Evolution Fund; Turin, Italy-based LIFTT, a venture capital holding chaired by Italian scientist and entrepreneur Stefano Buono; Swiss energy and raw materials firm ENET Energy; as well as “a group of international business angel investors.”
Rubber Conversion was established in 2017 and patented what it calls cutting-edge industrial technology for rubber devulcanisation. Compounds produced via the process are harvested from postconsumer products, including end-of-life tyres, and from production scrap, the firm says.
Rubber Conversion says the devulcanised materials “can be used in significant percentages in new rubber products and goods, and represent an effective solution to optimize sustainability in the production cycle, reducing virgin raw materials use”.
The company maintains a partnership with Innovando, an Italian company in the industrial waste management and recycling sector, which provides management compliance services, consulting, logistics and IoT solutions to implement end-of-life consumer product management programs and alternative fuels.”
“We are very pleased with the positive closing of this financing round,” says Francesco di Pierro, co-founder of Rubber Conversion. The funding, says di Pierro “confirms our vision of becoming an important player enabling even more sustainable strategies for rubber sector through material design and production waste management. Thanks to the new capital boost, we will strengthen production capacity, implement new business models and grow in new markets, further evolving our technology, developing our product range and strengthening our team.”
Rubber Conversion adds that the recycled rubber market is growing constantly, with a European requirement of about 200,000 tonnes/year and a trend set to quintuple in the next 25 years. Its growth will be primarily driven by new European and international regulations, which encourages end-of-life products integrated management, aiming at greater sustainability.
Today, annual European production waste from rubber processing industry exceeds 150,000 tonnes, which can be destined for reuse rather than for disposal or energy recovery. Rubber Conversion provides both closed cycle solutions for production waste recovery, and produces-starting from feedstock of postconsumer products such as end-of-life tyre powders and granules – devulcanised compounds that retain most of the original raw material static and dynamic properties.