- The Dutch company Black Bear aims to scale up its unique "Tire to Carbon Black" technology: Each plant would prevent emissions equal to the CO2 captured by more than 1 million trees;
- It will use the capital to further develop its industrial-scale prototype plant and expand internationally, with potential for more than 1000 plants worldwide;
- The consortium investing in Black Bear now consists of ING Sustainable Investments, 5square, Social Impact Ventures, Particon, SCG and Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund.
Leuven, Belgium: 6 November 2018 - Capricorn Venture Partners will invest € 2.5 million from its Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund in Black Bear. Every year, 1.5 billion tires reach the end of their life. The vast majority get dumped or incinerated, releasing massive amounts of CO2 and destroying highly valuable resources. To solve this waste tire problem, Black Bear has developed a unique carbonization process to transform used tires into recovered Carbon Black (rCB). The company has now successfully closed a growth-funding round of € 16 million to refine the environmentally friendly process and to start the worldwide roll out of the technology. This brings the Dutch cleantech company a crucial step closer to bringing the circular economy to tires.
Capricorn's Sustainable Chemistry Fund joined the earlier round of ING, two Netherlands-based investment firms 5square and Social Impact Ventures, as well as the conglomerate SCG from Thailand (Asia). Furthermore, Particon from Limburg, the Netherlands, has also joined the round and invests € 2.5 million.
More info on the
press release or
Black Bear's website.
