Participated · Series A · Sep 2023

traceless materials develops a patent-pending technology that turns agricultural industry plant leftovers into a natural biomaterial (traceless®) that is certified completely bio-based, home-compostable, and plastic-free. The technology is based on natural polymers, contains no potentially harmful chemicals, and is designed to have a minimal ecological footprint while conserving valuable biomass resources. The company is scaling its process from pilot scale to industrial scale to realize the ecological potential of its solution. traceless materials plans to use the Series A proceeds to expand production capabilities to industrial scale. Founded in 2020 and based in Hamburg, Germany, the company currently has a team of 40 employees. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. traceless materials develops a holistically sustainable, naturally compostable biomaterial made from agricultural food-production residues as an alternative to conventional plastics and bioplastics. The patent-pending technology, invented by CEO and co-founder Dr. Anne Lamp, uses natural polymers that are neither chemically modified nor synthetically polymerized. The material is fully home-compostable, requires no hazardous additives or solvents, avoids land-use change, and is claimed to have up to 87% lower CO2 emissions than conventional plastics. traceless says the material is already competitive in quality and will be price-competitive with virgin plastic at industrial EU scale. The product is applicable across rigid and flexible packaging, disposables, high-abrasion products, and coating & adhesive solutions; the team is developing prototypes including an e-commerce shipping bag with OTTO. Founded in September 2020 and based in Hamburg, the growing team has built a pilot production plant and is preparing for broader market entry. The company recently secured public funding and prior seed backing to accelerate scale-up toward demonstration and industrial production. traceless materials is a Hamburg, Germany–based circular bioeconomy startup founded in 2020. The company advances technology that uses agricultural industry by-products to produce storage-stable films, rigid materials and coatings. Its materials provide the beneficial properties of plastics while being fully compostable in the environment. The company plans to scale production from laboratory scale to produce sufficient material for first pilots targeted for early 2022 and to build a pilot plant. It intends to use the seed funding to continue hiring and to construct the pilot plant to enable those pilots.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2023

traceless develops a patent-pending natural polymer biomaterial, traceless®, that is certified completely bio-based, home-compostable and plastic-free. The material is produced from agricultural residues and is offered as a granulate that can be processed using standard plastics and packaging industry technologies. traceless® aims to replace plastics across applications—from rigid molded parts and flexible films to paper coatings and adhesives—while conserving valuable biomass resources. The company reports that its process saves 91% of CO2 emissions and 89% of fossil energy requirements versus plastic during production and disposal. traceless is building a demonstration plant in Hamburg to implement its technology at industrial scale and intends to replace several thousand tons of conventional plastic annually. Founded in 2020, the team of about 40 employees is advancing technology scale-up and developing pilot products with customers and partners.

Participated · Debt Financing · Dec 2022

Onomotion designs and assembles covered cargo e-bikes and attachable containers for urban logistics, selling them via a vehicle-as-a-service model that bundles vehicles, containers, chargers, maintenance and OTA updates. The company is largely vertically integrated and customizes containers for customer-specific needs. It currently has a couple hundred vehicles on the road in Germany and works with logistics partners including UPS, DPD and Hermes. Onomotion also offers fleet management and is growing a logistics-as-a-service unit that will handle drivers and operations; 15–20% of this year’s turnover is expected to come from that unit. The startup plans to expand beyond Berlin and Hamburg to other German cities, to several European cities such as Paris and Brussels, and later to North America (United States and Canada). It intends to improve its vehicles, add new features and modules, and invest in marketing and sales as it scales toward several thousand vehicles.