Discover our specific
investment focus areas
Promoting sustainable and circular ecosystems means investing in various steps along the value chain, from feedstock supply to recycling and back.
In order to keep a laser-sharp focus we have chosen to prioritize investments in mechanical, chemical and feedstock recycling on top of investments in recycled, hybrid, bio-based and carbon dioxide derived feedstock solutions. We call this last bucket 'alternative feedstock investments', as they will complement petrochemical feedstocks at first.
Investment thesis & theory of change
Complementing where
opportunities arise
Our 'Theory of Change':
“Effecting real turnaround in traditional and capital-intensive polymer value chains through investments in feedstock alternatives, end-market applications and recycling, requiring suppliers across the value chain to adapt and innovate by designing and producing more sustainable products”
Simply put, we balance our investments across geographies, markets, technologies and of course across different steps of chemical and downstream value chains. The rationale for this approach is that innovation and transition is quite often triggered by changing end market and even end consumer preferences. Hence, within newly arranged more circular value chains downstream pull creates opportunities for those upwards in the value chain. In addition, this pull dynamic at some point ends up with the big players, creating true impact and scalable opportunities for everyone. Finally, by organizing our investments as a buy & build scenario within an operational company, there are plenty of synergies between our investment cases by design. Furthermore, with this approach we build a lasting footprint and forego typical investment and private equity logic that is almost solely short-term and exit based.
In what follows we will very briefly describe our 3 main investment buckets.
1
Sustainable
end market
applications
As explained in our investment thesis, we believe that market pull can significantly accelerate the transition to more sustainable products and production processes. Therefore, we are actively seeking cases that explicitly focus on sustainable material substitution or on products that solve a waste stream excess or use recycled or upcycled materials as feedstock.
2
Mechanical,
chemical and
feedstock recycling
Projected feedstock availability, life cycle analysis (LCA) and CO2 emissions are complex subjects. Plastic waste pollution isn't. It is clearly visible, it is severe and it needs to be tackled immediately before it completely chokes our environment. Many industries and in fact a large part of our quality of life can only be sustained if we can maximize recycling and minimize waste incineration and landfill.
We target investments in recycling technologies or ecosystem build-up with a holistic view on (ideally circular) value chains. This means that we sometimes invest in areas complementary to technology providers. In terms of plastics we focus on but are not limited to PET, polyurethanes, epoxies, acrylics, amines, etc...
3
Sustainable Polymer Building Blocks
A crucial part of converting the chemical industry or at least inspiring the transition to sustainable polymers is the early (but not too early) involvement in new chemistries. This can be the hybrid or drop-in introduction of bio-based feedstock, grafting or copolymerization of more sustainable chemical formulations, use of recyclate or revisiting once standard and uncontested principles. We also look at investments in carbon dioxide derived chemistries to look for synergies in alternative feedstocks and reduce CO2 emissions at a potentially very large scale.
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