Circulate Capital invests to scale India’s circular economy for plastic waste

Established in partnership with PepsiCo, Chanel and many other brands CCOF is the world's first investment fund dedicated to combat ocean plastic in South and Southeast Asia.

New Delhi: Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management company focused on preventing plastic from leaking into the ocean and advancing the circular economy has announced that the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) has committed to invest $19 million in four leading companies that are using technology and innovation to scale and transform India’s waste management and recycling value chain.

Established in partnership with PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Chanel, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, and Chevron Phillips Chemical, CCOF is the world’s first investment fund dedicated to combat ocean plastic in South and Southeast Asia.

Today’s commitments to Srichakra Polyplast (Srichakra), Rapidue Technologies (Recykal), Deeya Panel Products (Ricron) and Dalmia Polypro Industries (Dalmia) combined with previously announced investments in Lucro and Nepra will see more than US$39 million invested in India. This also forms part of Circulate Capital’s commitment to dedicating half of CCOF’s $106 million of capital to the waste management and recycling industry in India.

In concert, the portfolio aims to materially improve the local industry by driving scale to address key systemic gaps and pain points within the ecosystem, such as fragmentation, lack of traceability and low quality of recycled materials through three key innovation strategies – scaling upcycling to transform waste into value (Lucro Plastecycle, Srichakra Polyplast, Ricron, Dalmia Polypro); scaling digitisation (Recykal); and, scaling collection and sorting through collaboration with cities (Nepra Resource Management) – the portfolio will transform the country’s waste management and recycling value chain.

Ravindra Venkata, Co-founder and CEO, Srichakra Polyplast (Hyderabad), said, “In 2010, we pioneered the plastic recycling process in India and with Circulate Capital’s support we aim to enhance our offering by producing larger quantities of recycled material to higher specifications that allow for new product applications, including food-grade packaging, in the future.”

Abhay Deshpande, Founder, Recykal (Hyderabad), said, “We are proud to be India’s first ‘waste-commerce’ company, transforming the waste management and recycling industry and setting new standards through digital solutions. We believe that by connecting players that would have otherwise not known each other, we can enable an efficient and effective industry, and transparent and traceable transactions between all stakeholders. Our partnership with Circulate Capital will see our offering reach more markets and build a complete digital ecosystem.”

Commenting on the long-term opportunity, Rahul Chaudhary, Co-founder and CEO, Ricron (Ankleshwar), said, “At Ricron we recognise the blue ocean opportunity to capture the value of difficult to manage, multi-layer plastic waste. This drove us to spearhead innovation to upcycle this waste into high-quality, eco-friendly materials for the building industry. Our efforts will help manage continued waste plastic generation and solve the growing housing and infrastructure demands of today.”

Commenting on Circulate Capital’s investment, Aditya Dalmia, Managing Director, Dalmia Polypro (Mumbai), said, “As a major PET recycler in India, a focus on innovation and technology underpins our ability to deliver consistent and reliable recycled materials for customers and places us ahead of the curve in developing food-grade applications in the country.”