Btomorrow Ventures is pleased to announce its participation in FlexSea’s seed fundraising round.
FlexSea is our latest investment, and our first in the sustainable packaging and bioplastics space. We have been fans of FlexSea since the company won Battle of Minds 2022 – our global pitch competition run in conjunction with BAT. And since their recent participation in our ESG Lab, we’re excited to join the team on their ‘beyond plastics’ journey via our investment.
FlexSea is a sustainable packaging company with patent-pending technology to make biodegradable, compostable and edible seaweed-derived bioplastics, designed to replace plastic film packaging. The technology can be used as packaging for various products, without a sacrificing packaging quality or competitiveness.
Founded in 2019 by Carlo Fedeli and Thibaut Monfort-Micheo, FlexSea’s sustainable seaweed-derived plastic breaks down rapidly and naturally in a matter of weeks. There are no harmful chemicals involved in its manufacture and no waste in its production stream.
After winning Battle of Minds last year, FlexSea took part in BTV’s ESG Lab, working closely with our team. BTV Labs offers companies a supportive partnership for the most important stage of growth and to explore integration with BAT. With access to everything from stakeholder investment to global distribution, this collaborative and committed partnership empowers brands to scale-up their businesses speedily and strategically.
As part of our investment, FlexSea and BAT will work together to explore how FlexSea’s technologies and processes could benefit BAT’s supply chain.
BAT’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Mike Nightingale says:
“The partnership with FlexSea enables BAT to explore the development of innovative technology that could improve future packaging and product development to help meet our sustainability targets and deliver competitive benefits.”
Speaking today, our Investment Director, Lukasz Garbowski says:
“FlexSea is a very special start-up for us, not only because the company was the BTV-sponsored Battle of Minds 2022 winner, but because it is our first investment in the sustainability space, and we hope there will be many more.
"It is also a very promising technology with an application across many products and industries. We have high hopes for FlexSea and cannot wait to support them on the journey to redefine the bioplastics landscape and advance a global ESG agenda.”
BTV’s investment is part of a £3 million equity seed funding and grants round, alongside several other investors and grantors. The lead investor, Indico Capital, has also committed capital in the seed round. The Portugal-based VC fund has a €50 million Blue Ocean Fund that specialises in Blue Tech, Ocean Renewable Energy and more.
FlexSea’s CEO and Founder, Carlo Fedeli, says
“It is great to complete this funding round with a stellar team of backers. A great mix of strategic investors with a clear commercial direction that can help us bring our materials to market and make seaweed biomaterials a widely available and true alternative to single-use plastics”.
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