Daphne Tech Raises 4.9 Million to Test Filters for Maritime-Shipping Exhausts
08.01.2019
Daphne Technology SA, whose filters purify exhaust emissions from commercial shipping, raised 4.9 million Swiss francs from investors including the world's largest oil and chemicals companies.
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Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures LLC, Belgium's The Innovation Fund SA and a Swiss business angel were among the investors in the round announced last week, Daphne Technology's chief executive Juan Mario Michan said by email today.
Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures is the corporate venture arm of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company. The Innovation Fund's investors include petrochemical companies Total SA, Solvay SA and BASF SE, the world's largest chemical producer.
Maritime transport emits around 1,000 million tons of carbon dioxide each year and is responsible for about 2.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. International law to control emissions of sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides from commercial shipping will enter force in 2020, and the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization aims to reduce the total greenhouse gas emissions from shipping by at least 50 percent by 2050.
Traditional industrial exhaust filters, known as scrubbers, produce waste chemicals which are expensive to treat or are discharged into the ocean. Daphne’s system of catalysts can transform oily pollutants into agricultural fertilizer, offering ship-owners a sustainable option that can also halve fuel cost consumption.
Daphne, a spin-off from Switzerland’s Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, won 130,000 francs from Venture Kick in 2018. The Lausanne-based company also secured support from FIT (Vaud), EPFL (Innogrant), Gebert Rüf Stiftung, BRIDGE, and ClimateKIC.
“Venture Kick support gave us a much-needed push and momentum at the most critical stages. Venture Kick helped us get things moving,” Michan, said.