A local team of designers and scientists have found a way to turn potato peels into cling wrap, and after successful commercialisation, the startup has raised $24 million in Series A funding.
Great Wrap was founded in Melbourne in 2020, and with support from Monash University, they’ve created a compostable wrap that will break down in 180 days.
The team’s impact goal is to remove the 150,000 tonnes of plastic stretch wrap from being sent to landfills each year.
Husband and wife co-founders Jordy and Julia Kay received early funding from Who Gives A Crap boss Simon Griffiths, with New York venture firm Trail Mix Ventures, having led the company’s $3 million seed round last year
This latest funding round saw investments from W23 (Woolworths), Thomas Trading, Grill’d Innovation Fund, Giant Leap, Small Giants, Thai Wah Ventures, GroundSwell, Trail Mix Ventures, Springbank Collective and various other impact investors from Australia, the USA and Singapore.
The total raise reached $24 million with $11 million coming from the investors listed above, while another $13 million in debt was secured from Rabobank’s asset financing arm, DLL Group.
The cash injection will help them towards their target of creating more than 100 local jobs in Victoria by the end of 2023.
The first stage is to vertically integrate its manufacturing operations with plans to build a biorefinery capable of processing some 50,000 tonnes of potato waste annually.
“The biorefinery setup will also be a huge step forward for our state – we’re excited to be bringing biotechnology and advanced manufacturing to the forefront,” says Jordy.