Lehigh Technologies, Inc. announced the closing of an $8 million strategic financing round to support the company’s geographic expansion and technology roadmap. JSR Corporation, a $4 billion specialty chemicals company, participated in the latest round of financing, joining existing investors Leaf Clean Energy; Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers; Index Ventures; and Florida Gulfshore Capital.
Lehigh Technologies has commercialized a micronized rubber powder (MRP) technology that transforms end-of-life rubber material into a lower cost, sustainable specialty chemical that replaces oil-based materials to reduce costs, provide performance and reduce waste in a wide range of end-use markets. To date, Lehigh’s MRP has been used in the manufacture of over 250 million tires, and the company serves six of the world’s top ten tire manufacturers.
“Commercial sales of MRP have been growing rapidly- over the past few years alone, we’ve demonstrated annual growth rates of 30 percent,” said Dr. Alan Barton, CEO of Lehigh Technologies. “Furthermore, we have made significant inroads into markets outside of the United States. However, this latest round of financing will give the company additional resources to drive growth in Europe and Asia, eventually culminating in local manufacturing. JSR, a highly regarded leader in polymer technology, will play a key role in this process.”
Lehigh operates the world’s largest MRP production facility, which has 140 million pounds of annual capacity. Lehigh has also invested in best-in-class research and development facilities, where it works with customers to develop new and more advanced MRP formulations for high-value applications in the tire and rubber, plastics and asphalt industries, among others. “Under the concept of E2 initiative, JSR is continuously seeking opportunities to contribute to low carbon society through Materials Innovation”, said Koichi Kawasaki, executive managing officer at JSR Corp. “Partnering in Lehigh’s growth and geographic expansion strategy is a great fit for JSR, as the company’s novel MRP technology offers our customer base a new material that brings a strong value proposition and sustainability benefits.”