Australia-based Samsara Eco, which uses enzyme-based technology to break down plastic into its constituent molecules, today announced it has raised AUD$54 million (about $34.7 million) in Series A funding. The company plans to build its first plastic recycling plant in Melbourne at the end of this year, and it is planned to be fully operational by 2023.
Investors in the round include Breakthrough Victoria, Temasek, Assembly Climate Capital, DCVC and INP Capital. Existing investors such as Deep Tech Fund Main Order, Woolworths Group W23 and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) also participated.
Samsara launched last year in partnership with the Australian National University. TechCrunch last covered the startup earlier this year when it raised $6 million.
The company’s enzyme-based technology breaks down plastics into molecular building blocks that can be turned into new plastic products—which in turn can be broken down again, creating Samsara’s endless cycle of plastic recycling.
Samsara’s new funding will be used to expand, building a library of plastic-eating enzymes and funding its first commercial facility, which will be able to recycle 20,000 tons of plastic indefinitely from 2024, it says. Operations to Europe and North America.
CEO and founder Paul Reilly has been focused on expanding the enzyme library since Samsara’s previous funding round was announced in March, which can now extract different types of plastics from polymers. He worked with partners to develop market solutions using Samsara’s plastic-recycling technology.
Samsara’s technology has the ability to break down plastic into its basic molecules in minutes, regardless of color, type and condition, Reilly said. The Melbourne facility will primarily recycle PET plastic and polyester, which Riley says accounts for about one-fifth of the plastic each year. Its long-term mission is to recycle mixed bale plastics and advance the technology to the point where every single plastic can be recycled indefinitely.
“Given the scale of the plastics crisis, our vision has always been to expand the infinite recycling of plastics as quickly as possible,” he said. “For us, this capital increase was about partnering with industry know-how to tackle one of the world’s most prominent climate challenges – fossil-based plastics – and in the process, stop plastic pollution.”
Samsara is preparing to launch its first enzyme-recycled packaging in partnership with Woolworths Group. The packaging will be on the shelves of Woolworths supermarkets next year, which the company announced in 2015. It will move towards its goal of recycling 1.5 million tonnes of plastic by 2030. Products like vegetables and bakery products.
Riley’s Samsara technology is highly pollution-resistant and can recycle colored plastics, composite plastics and multilayer plastics, meaning it has applications in a variety of industries, including packaging, fashion, automotive, medical, electronics and construction.
The fashion industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. Australia is the world’s second largest consumer of textiles per person, Riley said, adding that Samsara offers the opportunity to recycle discarded fast fashion pieces into mixed fiber textiles, reducing the amount of clothing that ends up in landfills.
“As we expand our library of plastic-eating enzymes, the potential for infinite plastic recycling will continue to grow in all of these industries, meaning we no longer have to produce plastic from fossil fuels,” Riley said.
