Plaxica Secures £1m Funding to Develop Next Generation Renewable Polymers
Plaxica announced that it has raised £1m in equity funding from existing investor Imperial Innovations Group plc, and new investors, Carbon Trust Investments Limited and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).
Plaxica is developing next generation biopolymers that will be both cheaper to produce and have improved properties compared with first generation biopolymers. The novel chemistry underpinning this technology came from research by Professor Vernon Gibson FRS and Dr Ed Marshall at Imperial College London. Plaxica's technology uses sustainable feedstocks to produce a biopolymer known as polylactic acid (PLA) using more energy-efficient processes, to produce a stronger, higher-quality polymer. The result should be a low-cost, environmentally-friendly biopolymer for use in applications as diverse as packaging, textiles, electronics and automobile parts.
This new investment will allow Plaxica to continue developing processes aimed at reducing production costs of PLAs to the point where it can compete with mass volume oil-based plastics.
John Hamlin, CEO of Plaxica commented “This funding allows Plaxica to further develop our technology towards commercial production. We are now in a good position to build on the industrial interest that we have already established, enabling the demonstration of our technology to a wider range of partners.”
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