New European Cir­cu­lar Bioeconomy Fund is ready to invest in Europe’s trans­ition to a more sus­tain­able economy

ECBF Man­age­ment GmbH today announces the first clos­ing of the European Cir­cu­lar Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). ECBF is the first ven­ture fund exclus­ively focused on the bioeconomy and the cir­cu­lar bioeconomy in Europe. With a tar­get size of €250 mil­lion, to which the European Invest­ment Bank (EIB) has com­mit­ted €100 mil­lion, ECBF will be an import­ant fin­an­cial instru­ment in achiev­ing the European Green Deal goals of mak­ing Europe cli­mate neut­ral by 2050. ECBF starts oper­a­tion today with € 82 mil­lion from its corner­stone investor EIB and three private investors: PreZero Inter­na­tion­al GmbH, which oper­ates in waste and recyc­ling; Cor­bion NV, a glob­al mar­ket lead­er in bio-based chem­ic­als and poly­mers; and Het­tich Beteili­gun­gen GmbH, a suc­cess­ful investor in sus­tain­able busi­ness and ser­vices. ECB­F’s shared pub­lic-private investor base is a test­a­ment to the oppor­tun­it­ies in the European bioeconomy. ECBF is also pleased to report the first two invest­ments in two innov­at­ive growth-stage com­pan­ies, Peel­Pi­on­eers BV and Pro­lupin GmbH. Both invest­ments will sup­port the growth and expan­sion of the respect­ive busi­nesses in Europe, thereby encour­aging Europe’s trans­ition towards a more sus­tain­able eco­nomy. Peel­Pi­on­eers uses pion­eer­ing tech­no­logy to provide a one hun­dred per cent cir­cu­lar solu­tion for orange peel, turn­ing it into products like orange oils, diet­ary fibres, and anim­al feed. From region­ally grown Lupines, Pro­lupin pro­duces high-qual­ity plant-based pro­teins, which are being for­mu­lated into non-dairy altern­at­ives being mar­keted on the European mar­ket under the brand ​“Made with LUVE”. The ECB­F’s primary object­ive is to stim­u­late addi­tion­al private and pub­lic cap­it­al invest­ment to scale up innov­at­ive bio-based com­pan­ies and pro­jects. More spe­cific­ally, ECBF provides equity invest­ment to growth-stage bioeconomy and cir­cu­lar bioeconomy com­pan­ies with high poten­tial for innov­a­tion, favour­able returns, and sus­tain­able impact. ECBF is based in Lux­em­bourg and man­aged by Hauck & Auf­häuser Fund Ser­vices S.A. Source: ECBF, Press Release, 01.10.2020