CHF 40,000 to recycle composites into reusable fibers, and to improve the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy
09.03.2022
Composite Recycling and Cultivated Biosciences both win Venture Kick's second stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects design a post-treatment process to make the recovered fibers saleable and reusable for new composite materials, and develop a fat ingredient from GMO-free yeast which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers.
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 Composite Recycling Founders (from left to right): CSO Dr. Pascal Gallo, CEO Guillaume Perben, and CTO Dr. Mitchell Anderson
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 Cultivated Biosciences Founders: Co-founder & CTO Dimitri Zogg, and CEO & Co-Founder Tomas Turner
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Composite Recycling: Recycling Composites Into Reusable Fibers
Cultivated Biosciences: Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy
Plant-based dairy alternatives fail to provide the same sensory journey as traditional dairy products, resulting in being completely stripped of identity value. Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy, particularly textural attributes associated with fat content and nature, can be the key to saving traditional European dairy.
Cultivated is developing a fat ingredient from GMO-free yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers. They have successfully produced the first prototypes of this ingredient and will soon start working on different applications, such as ice cream and cheese. Their ingredient has a marvelous mouthfeel, has a bright white color, and can be produced from industrial by-products. Cultivated Biosciences will work on these applications with several partners, such as Migros Industrie. These partners will also be their potential customers and they have 11 letters of intent from companies wanting to use our product in their ingredients. They have received several awards for our innovative solution, and the co-founder Tomas recently obtained a Bridge PoC grant from Innosuisse and SNF.
The CHF 40,000 from Venture Kick will be used to produce the first Minimum Viable Products. This will be both from raw materials, some salaries as well as equipment rental for downstream processing."
In 2021, 2.4 million tonnes of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) waste was produced and that number is growing annually. Until now the industry did not have a solution to recycle the glass fibers in a cost-effective way so the standard solution was incineration into cement plants, burial into landfills, or in the case of boats sunken to the bottom of the sea.
Composite Recycling has developed a process that makes it possible to recover the glass fibers from GFRP intact. Founders CSO Dr. Pascal Gallo, CEO Guillaume Perben, and CTO Dr. Mitchell Anderson, in collaboration with the group of Prof. Véronique Michaud at EPFL, designed a proprietary reactor and a post-treatment process to make the recovered fibers saleable and reusable for new composite materials. The market for GFRP recycling is estimated to exceed 8 billion CHF annually.
Composite Recycling has developed a process that makes it possible to recover the glass fibers from GFRP intact. Founders CSO Dr. Pascal Gallo, CEO Guillaume Perben, and CTO Dr. Mitchell Anderson, in collaboration with the group of Prof. Véronique Michaud at EPFL, designed a proprietary reactor and a post-treatment process to make the recovered fibers saleable and reusable for new composite materials. The market for GFRP recycling is estimated to exceed 8 billion CHF annually.
They will use the CHF 40,000 from the second round of Venture Kick to finance the design of the full-scale recycling unit to be deployed by the end of the year. composite-recycling.ch
Cultivated Biosciences: Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy
Plant-based dairy alternatives fail to provide the same sensory journey as traditional dairy products, resulting in being completely stripped of identity value. Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy, particularly textural attributes associated with fat content and nature, can be the key to saving traditional European dairy.
Cultivated is developing a fat ingredient from GMO-free yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers. They have successfully produced the first prototypes of this ingredient and will soon start working on different applications, such as ice cream and cheese. Their ingredient has a marvelous mouthfeel, has a bright white color, and can be produced from industrial by-products. Cultivated Biosciences will work on these applications with several partners, such as Migros Industrie. These partners will also be their potential customers and they have 11 letters of intent from companies wanting to use our product in their ingredients. They have received several awards for our innovative solution, and the co-founder Tomas recently obtained a Bridge PoC grant from Innosuisse and SNF.
The CHF 40,000 from Venture Kick will be used to produce the first Minimum Viable Products. This will be both from raw materials, some salaries as well as equipment rental for downstream processing."