European Investment Bank (EIB) has committed up to $20 million to the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund I-B (CCOF I-B), which invests both into disruptive innovations aligned with Circulate Capital Disrupt (CCD), the firm’s climate-tech strategy, and into the South and Southeast Asia recycling value chain, alongside the firm’s $112m Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF I). CCOF I-B is targeting a total raise of $80 million and is therefore in consideration with other investors, as recently disclosed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The fund’s inaugural investments are innovators that implement solutions in the biotechnologies, sustainable fashion, and smart materials sectors as well as digitization of the recycling value chain to combat plastic waste and climate change. These enterprises include Arzeda, Circ, Phase Change Solutions and Recykal, they represent some of today’s most cutting-edge innovations that are disrupting a cross-section of supply chains and have proven technologies and ambitions to expand in Asia where there is strong potential for financial, environmental, and social returns.